[GNC] Register column sizing

[David Carlson]

I do find that when I move between computers with different display
resolutions, if I copy the user preferences,  then I have to fiddle with
widths on the new machine.   If the defaults were good enough so that there
was no need to port over the column widths,  there would still be other
settings like csv import settings and custom reports to port over, so if
these items can be separated so users can pick and choose what to keep, it
would be greatly appreciated.

On Fri, Jan 6, 2023 at 2:05 PM Thomas Forrester <tlforrester at gmail.com>
wrote:

> To be honest, John, it's been a minute since I bothered to think about it.
> For the most part, I guess I just leave columns alone.  I don't recall the
> last time I've had to resize a column, and maybe that speaks kindly of the
> width-memory the columns have at this point.  Or not.  Like I say, I don't
> find myself needing to resize columns much.  But neither does that mean
> I've never resized a column.  My recollection of those times is that it was
> somewhat frustrating and counter intuitive.  As if it seemed to be doing
> the sizing backwards or was somehow causing disruption to other column
> widths.
>
> I don't feel asking me what I think GnuCash is doing differently than
> spreadsheets is going to give you any important information.  Rather, I
> think you should be asking yourself, "what is GnuCash doing that is
> different from how spreadsheets do it?"  After all, you came to us saying,
> "There have been occasional complaints for many years about column width
> sizing."  I hypothesize that at the root of these complaints is the
> difference between the intuitive and well accepted behavior of spreadsheets
> vs the, well, clumsy(?) way GnuCash is doing it.
>
> If GnuCash starts behaving like a spreadsheet in this regard, I would
> expect all the grumbling to go away.  Or at the very least you could say
> you're standing on the shoulders of giants like Excel, LibreOffice Calc,
> etc, in doing it how they do it so as to bring an established standard to
> the table.
>
> Thanks.
> Tom
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 6, 2023 at 1:31 PM john <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
>
> > With the exception of the Description field automatically resizing itself
> > to fit the register in the window width, I think GnuCash does size
> columns
> > the same way spreadsheets do: You put the pointer on the right-hand
> divider
> > in the header and drag it, and double-click in the header to fit the
> width
> > to the widest entry in that column. What do you think spreadsheets do
> > differently?
> >
> > Regards,
> > John Ralls
> >
> >
> > On Jan 6, 2023, at 5:37 AM, Thomas Forrester <tlforrester at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > I realize I'm answering a slightly different question, but I've never
> > understood why the GnuCash developers have never made column sizing (and
> > apparently hiding, too) work just like spreadsheets.  We already invented
> > that wheel, and people are *really* accustomed to how it works, hence the
> > grumbling when it's discovered by new GnuCash users that it doesn't work
> > that way here.  I think the vast majority would agree that the way
> > spreadsheet columns work is a very mature, and well understood
> "technology"
> > (for lack of a better word) that has become ubiquitous and intuitive.
> Note
> > also that I said "spreadsheets" rather than, say, "Excel" because the way
> > spreadsheet columns work isn't specific to any one spreadsheet program,
> and
> > once again speaks to how universal handling spreadsheet columns has
> become.
> >
> > My guess is that what you're asking is likely just fine, but isn't it
> just
> > another band-aid that really would be better ripped off in favor of
> > spreadsheet-like resizing logic?
> >
> > Tom
> > Thomas L. Forrester
> > Middleton, WI USA
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Jan 5, 2023 at 9:42 PM john <jralls at ceridwen.us> wrote:
> >
> >> Users,
> >>
> >> There have been occasional complaints for many years about column width
> >> sizing. See for e.g. https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=563588.
> >> Most users seem to eventually get used to it, but I wonder if anybody
> >> really likes it.
> >>
> >> The problem boils down to the auto-sizing behavior of the Description
> >> column, which causes that column to grow or shrink when you adjust the
> >> window's width, and to make a horizontal scrollbar appear when you widen
> >> another column. Occasionally someone will complain about the normally
> >> hidden price column because it's possible to catch its handle and widen
> it
> >> when you mean to widen the balance column.
> >>
> >> It would be really easy to turn off autosizing on the Description field
> >> and only a little work to figure out another way to handle the price and
> >> ditch that column. Would anyone miss it?
> >>
> >> Regards,
> >> John Ralls
> >>
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