--
I.S.
On Aug 17, 2009, at 12:30 PM, Corbin Dunn wrote:
Hopefully customization has become easier, and frequently less
required (ie: the "source list" highlighting style, proper drag and
drop feedback, etc). Do you have specific examples of things that
are difficult to do which should be easier? I'm interested in
knowing what is difficult to customize, or work with.
Fair enough.
First, for the record, I meant it when I said I meant no
disrespect. AppKit as a whole is still an amazing API.
Second, customization *has* become somewhat easier over the years
but I'm sad to say I feel NSTableView and NSOutlineView are very
neglected in this regard (customization) than are other UI elements.
It's progressing at a glacial pace.
Third, the (short but important-to-me list):
1 - Drawing. Take a look back through the archives. This has to be the
single-most-bemoaned issue. Adding a standardized source list style
was great (more like this, please), but at the very least, more places
to intervene are long overdue. A specific method for drawing the DnD
insertion point would be a good example. The archives are full of this
request but unless I failed to notice (and I admit the strong
possibility as I haven't specifically checked in the last year or
two), there's no supported way to do this. Plenty of ugly hacks,
though. There are other examples but I'm a lazy, lazy man.
2 - Column drag and drop. It's like the poor, neglected stepchild
compared to row drag and drop. Why? We don't get nearly the control
that we do for rows/nodes. We also have no (easy? foreseeable?
supported?) way of dragging columns outside a table. There aren't as
many reasons why you'd want to drag columns between tables as there
are for rows, but there are plenty.
3 - Column headers. Customizing the look is fairly easy. Customizing
behavior, however, has all sorts of gotcha's, depending on your goal.
This is a separate post unto itself. Again, the archives are the
smoking gun (smoldering underground coal fire?).
4 - Animation. Come on, guys, you (Apple, collectively) have been
pushing animation since Leopard. Animation on sort is a bit
ridiculous, but how about sliding rows out of the way to make room for
a drop? How about slamming them shut and flinging a locally-dragged
row back to its position (or making it disappear "under" the edge of
the scroll view in the direction of its original position if it's not
currently visible due to a scroll)? Developers have been using hacks
to perform at least "live, animated sorting" for years. I cite
NewsFire as the first example I've ever encountered (let's not bring
up the NewsFire author debate that raged for years on cocoadev.com,
please). Columns too. Right now, the columns just kind of "pop" back
and forth. I often get visually confused when reordering the columns
of any app. Columns can tend to look alike, differentiated only by
title. This is a *perfect* example of why at least a judicious touch
of animation is sorely needed in this control. But that's not
customization, merely improvement. :-)
That's all I have time for at the moment, but it's illustrative of
the kind of issues I've encountered or frequently read of others
encountering.
I understand this is a highly complex control. I know a lot of the
"why can't we just..." pleas probably don't take this into proper
account. Again, I have nothing but respect for the AppKit team, but I
think it's time to focus on major renovations for these views for the
next cat. That's all. :-)
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