On 17 Jun 2002 12:11:10 +0200, Dominik Vogt wrote: > > The message from Malte Schuenemann made me think about the > configure summary we have. His question demonstrates a common > problem: some library option is disabled and the user wonders > what it is good for in the first place. Even I don't know which > features are disabled if a certain option is turned off. Let's > take a look:
The problem is this. Every support line including a descriptive name and a descriptive error message should be on a single line. Otherwise you end up with a lot of lines to be able to read anything. You may probably add one more character to an option name and one more character to an error message, but it is already 79 or 80 in some cases. > With Bi-directional text support? > "Bi-directional" may be the right term, but I don't think > everybody thinks of "hebrew" or "arabic" fonts immediately. "With Asian Bidi text support" better? > With Extended Window Manager Hints? > With GNOME Window Manager Hints? > The typical user has probably no idea what these do. I don't think there is a better description. > With GTK support for FvwmGtk? > With GDK Imlib support in FvwmGtk? > With GNOME support in FvwmGtk? > None of these is clear. What happens if they are off? If the first is off, there is no FvwmGtk, so there are no other two options as well. The seconds adds images to FvwmGtk. The third adds gnome segmentation fault dialog when FvwmGtk crashes. :) (Which is by the way bad if you need core file). I am not sure why we need this support. It means a better integration with gnome, but... > With PNG support? > Ok. Perhaps "With PNG image/icon support" Ok, "With PNG image support". > With ReadLine sup. in FvwmConsole? > What is readline good for? (Well, *I* know, but many others > don't). You see, there is no even space for the full "support" word here. :) > With RPlay support in FvwmEvent? > With Shaped window support? > Okay. > > With Session Management support? > Very vague. > > With Stroke support? > You have to know libstroke to understand this. Maybe mention > the commands that are disabled w/o libstroke. Also, compiling > w/o libstroke reduces network traffic a lot because > MotionNotify events are no longer sent. I think a lot of browsers nowadays start to add gestures, so most of the users will hear about them. (You are still limited to 34 characters.) "With mouse stroke support" better? "With mouse gestures support"? "With mouse stroke (gestures)"? > With Xinerama support? > Clear for me, but > > With Xft aa font support? > With Xrender support? > ? "With Xft anti-alias font support" "With Xrender image support" > With XPM support? > Ok. Perhaps "With XPM image/icon support" > > I'm not sure how to provide some additional information. The > config summary should fit on a single screen, but it won't with > all the new text. How about putting a note at the end of the > summary: > > For a full explanation of above options, run > ./configure --help-summary > > and dump the full descriptions with the --help-summary option? No, it should say, "See INSTALL.fvwm for the full option description". Regards, Mikhael. -- Visit the official FVWM web page at <URL:http://www.fvwm.org/>. To unsubscribe from the list, send "unsubscribe fvwm-workers" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To report problems, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
