Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-28 Thread HoytDuff
On Tuesday 28 January 2003 07:14 am, Reinout van Schouwen scribbled in crayon 
on a yellow legal pad:
> > as for tools written interactive, they can be run in text mode, which
> > is the solution for too low resolution boxes.
>
> I'm sorry, but from an unexperienced user point of view, this is no
> solution, but a reason to throw that stupid difficult Linux thing aside.

Reinout's comment sounds to me like an excuse to justify his lack of continued 
interest and lack of persistence. Or pehaps he just has an argumentative 
personality or a need to control; it doesn't really matter. I don't like 
getting up early to be at work, especially since there is no logical reason 
for me to do my work during any specific part of the day and it would be easy 
for my boss to relent on her demands that I arrive at work at a certain time, 
but I adjust and get on with business. So should we and Reinout.

-- 
Hoyt
http://www.maximumhoyt.com

A -- Top posting.
Q -- What's the most annoying habit in email and usenet?





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-28 Thread David Walser
--- Reinout van Schouwen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello David,
> 
> On Tue, 28 Jan 2003, David Walser wrote:
> 
> > > Or redesigning them to be usable in 640x480. I'm
> not
> 
> > You're being totally unreasonable.  If someone's
> got a
> 
> I'm sorry that you find me acting unreasonable, I
> have no such intention.

Whoops, I should be more clear.  I don't find your
behavior unreasonable, just your expecatations.

> > monitor so crappy that they can't even run at
> 800x600,
> > they use a different frontend to the draktools.
> 
> At the risk of repeating myself, two points:
> 1. Being able to run at 800x600 doesn't necessarily
> mean someone actually
> uses that resolution. Is it so difficult to see
> that, as long as a user
> can switch resolution to 640x480 using mcc, he
> should be able to revert
> back using that same tool?!

True enough.  The fact is though that they can.  They
can use a different frontend.

> 2. Requiring different frontends makes things more
> complicated than
> needed, thus putting off users on the one hand, and
> generating support
> requests on the other. It's details like these why
> reviewers keep saying
> that Mandrake always has a little "unfinished" feel
> about it.

No, having more frontends has more machines, more
people's needs, and more people's tastes and
configurations that we can't think of beforehand able
to be supported.  It gives things a more finished
feeling.

> > are covered by at least one frontend, so nobody
> can
> > bitch about their machine not being supported.
> 
> You are effectively saying that a user running at
> 640x480 should use a
> different frontend.

Yes, just like someone with a P133 shouldn't run
Gnome.

> Then why doesn't launching mcc
> in a low resolution
> automatically switch to framebuffer (DrakX) mode to
> enable the user to
> change his settings instead of forcing him to find
> out about the different
> frontends himself?

Valid question, that would be neat actually (all it'd
really have to do is launch a terminal and run the
non-X version of the tool).

Neatness doesn't always equal importance though.  The
way it works now, detecting if you're in X and
launching the X version if so, otherwise not, is
really easy to program.  Adding this neat idea would
take a lot more work, and probably isn't worth all of
the effort right now.

> > Are you gonna whine and complain to us when you
> find Gnome and Evolution
> > unusable on a P133 with 16MB RAM???  I sure hope
> not.  Doesn't mean
> 
> No, but that's totally besides the point. We're
> discussing a
> *configuration tool* here, which almost by
> definition needs to support the
> lowest common denominator.

And the point of the different frontends is so that we
can support the lowest common denominator.  It's also
part of the benefit to having things like IceWM and
mutt in the distro (the other being even people with
fast machines like those).

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Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-28 Thread David Walser
--- Adam Williamson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Are you just wilfully ignoring the actual experience
> that's been posted
> to this list? For the fourth time, I use a laptop.
> It's perfectly
> powerful enough to run KDE or GNOME (I use GNOME).
> Because it's a
> cunning small laptop, it has a half-height screen,
> whose resolution is
> 1024x480.

That's reasonable.

> The biggest obstacle to using Mandrake on
> this laptop is the
> fact the most Mandrake tools use large windows with
> no scrollbars. This
> is a fixable problem.

Almost anything is a fixable problem.  The right
question to ask, especially when you're in a situation
with limited resources is, is it worth fixing?  Maybe
at some point if time permits yes, but there are
definatly more important things to do right now.

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Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-28 Thread Damian Gatabria
> >
> > one uses the right tool in the right place.
>
> And how are people supposed to use it if it's not visible???
>

which tools are unusable when embedded in mc at 640x480?

is there a possibility to add a few lines to mcc, when the user
clicks to run those, to check for screen resolution, and if it's
<=640x480, run it in a separated window? At least the tool
would be usable.. 

Better yet, when the user clicks on the tool, make a dialog pop up:

---
At your current screen resolution, I cannot embed this tool, or 
it will  not fit your screen. Do you want to run it in a separate
 window?


O Don't ask me again

___
|Yes|   |No|
---


 Just trying to be helpful...


Damian




Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-28 Thread Adam Williamson
On Tue, 2003-01-28 at 12:52, David Walser wrote:

> > I'm sorry, but from an unexperienced user point of
> > view, this is no
> > solution, but a reason to throw that stupid
> > difficult Linux thing aside.
> 
> You're being totally unreasonable.  If someone's got a
> monitor so crappy that they can't even run at 800x600,
> they use a different frontend to the draktools. 
> That's part of the reason different frontends exist! 
> The point isn't that every frontend is supported on
> every single machine, the point is that all machines
> are covered by at least one frontend, so nobody can
> bitch about their machine not being supported.

*sigh*

Are you just wilfully ignoring the actual experience that's been posted
to this list? For the fourth time, I use a laptop. It's perfectly
powerful enough to run KDE or GNOME (I use GNOME). Because it's a
cunning small laptop, it has a half-height screen, whose resolution is
1024x480. The biggest obstacle to using Mandrake on this laptop is the
fact the most Mandrake tools use large windows with no scrollbars. This
is a fixable problem.
-- 
adamw





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-28 Thread David Walser
--- Reinout van Schouwen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hello Thierry,
> 
> On Tue, 28 Jan 2003, Thierry Vignaud wrote:
> 
> > making it usuable in 640x480 would mean dropping
> features in tools.
> 
> Or redesigning them to be usable in 640x480. I'm not
> saying this is easy,
> but I am saying it is necessary.
> 
> > as for tools written interactive, they can be run
> in text mode, which
> > is the solution for too low resolution boxes.
> 
> I'm sorry, but from an unexperienced user point of
> view, this is no
> solution, but a reason to throw that stupid
> difficult Linux thing aside.

You're being totally unreasonable.  If someone's got a
monitor so crappy that they can't even run at 800x600,
they use a different frontend to the draktools. 
That's part of the reason different frontends exist! 
The point isn't that every frontend is supported on
every single machine, the point is that all machines
are covered by at least one frontend, so nobody can
bitch about their machine not being supported.

Are you gonna whine and complain to us when you find
Gnome and Evolution unusable on a P133 with 16MB
RAM???  I sure hope not.  Doesn't mean Mandrake
doesn't support the machine, but you have to use tools
more fit to it (IceWM and mutt maybe).

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Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Gerard Patel
At 11:20 PM 1/27/03 +0100, you wrote:

>Look at GtkScrolledWindow. As I see it, it is just a three-liner to make
>everyone happy:
>- change the GtkWindow in mcc for a GtkScrolledWindow
>and 1 line add to set default scrolling policy

I tried it :
-my $window_global = gtkset_size_request(Gtk2::Window->new('toplevel'),
$global_width, $global_height);
+my $window_global = gtkset_size_request(Gtk2::ScrolledWindow->new(undef,
undef), $global_width, $global_height);
 my $pending_app = 0;
%I

Result :
[root@duron sbin]# Is gtk2-perl missing Gtk2::ScrolledWindow::add_accel_group ?
Call trace:
Gtk2::_Object::AUTOLOAD() called from /usr/lib/libDrakX/ugtk2.pm:392
ugtk2::create_factory_menu_() called from /usr/lib/libDrakX/ugtk2.pm:396
ugtk2::create_factory_menu() called from /usr/sbin/drakconf.real:317

So much for the one liner.

This discussion is tiresome. Since everyone is persuaded that this is *easy*,
I think that people who think it is easy should implement it. I'm absolutely
no specialist of perl or Gtk.
Don't forget that other utilities are written in C and don't depend on mcc 
for their screen size, too.

Gerard





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Adam Williamson
On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 22:20, J.A. Magallon wrote:

> Look at GtkScrolledWindow. As I see it, it is just a three-liner to make
> everyone happy:
> - change the GtkWindow in mcc for a GtkScrolledWindow
> - let the default size for mcc whatever you want. If it is bigger than the
>   screen, the system will not make it that size, but just fit to the avaliable
>   space
> - if you use a small screen, then the scrollbars wil be visible. if you are
>   at 1600x1200, no scrollbars will appear.
> 
> As I said, just 1 line change and 1 line add to set default scrolling policy
> for the GtkScrolledWindow.
> 
> Err, supposing the interfaces are implemented in perl (I just use the C gtk)
> 
> Hope this helps.

Thanks! That sounds like exactly what I was proposing. MDK guys?
-- 
adamw





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread J.A. Magallon

On 2003.01.27 Gerard Patel wrote:
> At 05:17 PM 1/27/03 +, you wrote:
> 
> >I can't believe it's very difficult. I mean, take an example - I'm
> >looking at Evolution right now, a GTK app. I have it maximised; the tree
> >view on the left has no scrollbars. If I make it too thin for the whole
> >tree view to be completely displayed horizontally, guess what? A
> >scrollbar appears. If I make it too short for it to be completely
> >displayed vertically (I'm sure you can see where I'm going with
> >this...:>), hey, another scrollbar appears! Just like that. SURELY this
> >can't be *so* hard for the Mandrake tools to implement? I guess Mandrake
> >has the slight extra problem of starting its tools up with an
> >appropriate window size, but that must surely be possible too.
> 
> Hmmm... everything is possible with enough code but 
> is it worth the bother, that's always the question.
> I have just done a few minutes of search on the Internet, and
> looking at :
> http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/gtk/gtkwindow.html
> 

Look at GtkScrolledWindow. As I see it, it is just a three-liner to make
everyone happy:
- change the GtkWindow in mcc for a GtkScrolledWindow
- let the default size for mcc whatever you want. If it is bigger than the
  screen, the system will not make it that size, but just fit to the avaliable
  space
- if you use a small screen, then the scrollbars wil be visible. if you are
  at 1600x1200, no scrollbars will appear.

As I said, just 1 line change and 1 line add to set default scrolling policy
for the GtkScrolledWindow.

Err, supposing the interfaces are implemented in perl (I just use the C gtk)

Hope this helps.

-- 
J.A. Magallon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  \ Software is like sex:
werewolf.able.es \   It's better when it's free
Mandrake Linux release 9.1 (Cooker) for i586
Linux 2.4.21-pre3-jam3 (gcc 3.2.1 (Mandrake Linux 9.1 3.2.1-4mdk))




Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread J.A. Magallon

On 2003.01.27 Adam Williamson wrote:
> On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 17:35, Buchan Milne wrote:
> > Adam Williamson wrote:
> > > On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 17:14, Gerard Patel wrote:
> > 
> > > I can't believe it's very difficult. I mean, take an example - I'm
> > > looking at Evolution right now, a GTK app. I have it maximised; the tree
> > > view on the left has no scrollbars. If I make it too thin for the whole
> > > tree view to be completely displayed horizontally, guess what? A
> > > scrollbar appears.
> > 
> > At close on a million lines of code (IIRC), Evo isn't a very good
> > example of how to do things easily.
> > 
> > The GTK2 port has taken them over a year AFAIK ... and it's nowhere near
> > stable yet ...
> 
> *sigh*
> 
> come on, Buchan, surely you realise it was just the first example that
> came to hand. If you really want, gaim does exactly the same. It's GTK
> 2, and it's a small app. Happy now? Crikey.

Showing or hiding the scrollbars inside a GtkScrolledWindow is automatic,
just 1 line of C code is needed for that. If the perl interface is a 1-to-1
mapping to the C functionality, just a line of perl.

-- 
J.A. Magallon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  \ Software is like sex:
werewolf.able.es \   It's better when it's free
Mandrake Linux release 9.1 (Cooker) for i586
Linux 2.4.21-pre3-jam3 (gcc 3.2.1 (Mandrake Linux 9.1 3.2.1-4mdk))




Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Adam Williamson
On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 20:58, Gerard Patel wrote:
> At 08:37 PM 1/27/03 +, you (Adam Williamson) wrote:
> 
> >Well, don't urpmi gaim, cos Mandrake's still using 0.59, and CVS is way
> >better (0.60) =). You're still sort of right as regards 0.60, though -
> >it does use a fixed size preferences window. Which is odd, because I was
> >referring to the contact list, which *does* dynamically include or
> >remove scrollbars (for instance, with just a few people logged on my
> >contact list has no scrollbars, but if a bunch more log on and they no
> >longer fit in the window, I get a vertical scrollbar).
> 
> A list is another story; a list is completely useless without scrolling
> so it _has_ to be implemented anyway, even if your screen is
> an Ibm T221. Some Mandrake tools have scrollbars too to handle
> lists, like drakservices for example.

Well, yes, and drakconf etc. are currently "completely useless" to those
of us with low resolution screens. For the same reason. Sure it's a
smaller set, but so what? Microsoft can get away with endlessly upping
hardware requirements and pandering to a bare majority, Linux vendors
can't...
-- 
adamw





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Gerard Patel
At 08:37 PM 1/27/03 +, you (Adam Williamson) wrote:

>Well, don't urpmi gaim, cos Mandrake's still using 0.59, and CVS is way
>better (0.60) =). You're still sort of right as regards 0.60, though -
>it does use a fixed size preferences window. Which is odd, because I was
>referring to the contact list, which *does* dynamically include or
>remove scrollbars (for instance, with just a few people logged on my
>contact list has no scrollbars, but if a bunch more log on and they no
>longer fit in the window, I get a vertical scrollbar).

A list is another story; a list is completely useless without scrolling
so it _has_ to be implemented anyway, even if your screen is
an Ibm T221. Some Mandrake tools have scrollbars too to handle
lists, like drakservices for example.

Gerard





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Adam Williamson
On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 20:37, Gerard Patel wrote:
> At 08:12 PM 1/27/03 +, you (Adam Williamson) wrote:
> >On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 18:53, Gerard Patel wrote:
> >
> >> doing it but Mandrake, your opinion would be certain. But like another
> >> poster said, Evolution is a big app; it is probably not your typical
> >> open source software written by a few enthusiasts; it had some serious
> >> corporate backing from what I understand.
> >
> >See my post re gaim.
> 
> I have never used gaim, you see. I urpmi'ed it for you. Launched it.
> Started the Options screen. Hum, where is the 'Close' button ?'
> That's right, out of my screen real estate (at 800x600).
> Nice try, play again.

Well, don't urpmi gaim, cos Mandrake's still using 0.59, and CVS is way
better (0.60) =). You're still sort of right as regards 0.60, though -
it does use a fixed size preferences window. Which is odd, because I was
referring to the contact list, which *does* dynamically include or
remove scrollbars (for instance, with just a few people logged on my
contact list has no scrollbars, but if a bunch more log on and they no
longer fit in the window, I get a vertical scrollbar).
-- 
adamw





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Gerard Patel
At 08:12 PM 1/27/03 +, you (Adam Williamson) wrote:
>On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 18:53, Gerard Patel wrote:
>
>> doing it but Mandrake, your opinion would be certain. But like another
>> poster said, Evolution is a big app; it is probably not your typical
>> open source software written by a few enthusiasts; it had some serious
>> corporate backing from what I understand.
>
>See my post re gaim.

I have never used gaim, you see. I urpmi'ed it for you. Launched it.
Started the Options screen. Hum, where is the 'Close' button ?'
That's right, out of my screen real estate (at 800x600).
Nice try, play again.

Gerard





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Adam Williamson
On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 20:21, Gerard Patel wrote:
> At 07:56 PM 1/27/03 +0100, you (Reinout van Schouwen) wrote:
> 
> (...)
> >You will get mocking press reports either way
> 
> bah. Journos don't do their reviews on 486-25 computers.
> 
> >, but at least when you
> >choose the 640x480 option, you don't make the control center unusable for
> >some people.
> 
> some people can as well change these values in mcc :
> 
> --- drakconf.real.orig  2003-01-27 13:12:31.0 +0100
> +++ drakconf.real   2003-01-27 21:02:15.0 +0100
> @@ -264,7 +264,7 @@
> 
>  # main window :
> 
> -my ($global_width, $global_height) = (720, 578);
> +my ($global_width, $global_height) = (640, 480);
> 
>  my ($timeout, $show_log_check_box, $embedded_check_box,
> $expert_wizard_check_box);
> 
> [root@duron sbin]#
> 
> Now making this work in an elegant way, that's another story.
> And changing all the other Mandrake tools also - some of them
> in need of more urgent bug-fixing IMO.

How does that help? Surely it just makes a smaller window in which some
stuff wouldn't be visible, which is still useless.

(heh, we call our machines by their processor type as well...=)
-- 
adamw





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Adam Williamson
On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 18:53, Gerard Patel wrote:

> doing it but Mandrake, your opinion would be certain. But like another
> poster said, Evolution is a big app; it is probably not your typical
> open source software written by a few enthusiasts; it had some serious
> corporate backing from what I understand.

See my post re gaim.
-- 
adamw





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Gerard Patel
At 07:56 PM 1/27/03 +0100, you (Reinout van Schouwen) wrote:

(...)
>You will get mocking press reports either way

bah. Journos don't do their reviews on 486-25 computers.

>, but at least when you
>choose the 640x480 option, you don't make the control center unusable for
>some people.

some people can as well change these values in mcc :

--- drakconf.real.orig  2003-01-27 13:12:31.0 +0100
+++ drakconf.real   2003-01-27 21:02:15.0 +0100
@@ -264,7 +264,7 @@

 # main window :

-my ($global_width, $global_height) = (720, 578);
+my ($global_width, $global_height) = (640, 480);

 my ($timeout, $show_log_check_box, $embedded_check_box,
$expert_wizard_check_box);

[root@duron sbin]#

Now making this work in an elegant way, that's another story.
And changing all the other Mandrake tools also - some of them
in need of more urgent bug-fixing IMO.

Gerard





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Adam Williamson
On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 17:35, Buchan Milne wrote:
> Adam Williamson wrote:
> > On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 17:14, Gerard Patel wrote:
> 
> > I can't believe it's very difficult. I mean, take an example - I'm
> > looking at Evolution right now, a GTK app. I have it maximised; the tree
> > view on the left has no scrollbars. If I make it too thin for the whole
> > tree view to be completely displayed horizontally, guess what? A
> > scrollbar appears.
> 
> At close on a million lines of code (IIRC), Evo isn't a very good
> example of how to do things easily.
> 
> The GTK2 port has taken them over a year AFAIK ... and it's nowhere near
> stable yet ...

*sigh*

come on, Buchan, surely you realise it was just the first example that
came to hand. If you really want, gaim does exactly the same. It's GTK
2, and it's a small app. Happy now? Crikey.
-- 
adamw





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread HoytDuff
On Monday 27 January 2003 01:56 pm, Reinout van Schouwen scribbled in crayon 
on a yellow legal pad:
> It's not *my* problem, but I shudder to think of the frustration this
> would cause to someone who had accidentally set his screen resolution too
> low and tries to use the control center to revert it back and finds that
> he can't do so because the frigging OK button is off the screen...

Doesn't the holding  Alt- key while grabbing the window allow you to move it 
around? Awkward, but useful as a workaround.

-- 
Hoyt




Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Gerard Patel
At 08:05 PM 1/27/03 +0100, you (Reinout van Schouwen) wrote:

>Well, you should have spent a few minutes more, because the document
>you're referring to covers GTK 1.x, and AFAIK Mandrake is now using GTK
>2.2 for all of its tools.
>
>See http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/gtk/GtkWindow.html

Not much seems to have changed from this point of view;
it was to be expected, since Window behaviour is largely
a following of X Window (generally speaking) behaviour and
some compatibility has to exist from a version to another.

Gerard





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Reinout van Schouwen
Hello Gerard,

On Mon, 27 Jan 2003, Gerard Patel wrote:

> I have just done a few minutes of search on the Internet, and
> looking at :
> http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/gtk/gtkwindow.html

Well, you should have spent a few minutes more, because the document
you're referring to covers GTK 1.x, and AFAIK Mandrake is now using GTK
2.2 for all of its tools.

See http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/gtk/GtkWindow.html

regards,

-- 
Reinout van SchouwenArtificial Intelligence student
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mobile phone: +31-6-44360778
GPG public key http://www.cs.vu.nl/~reinout/reinout.asc





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Gerard Patel
At 05:17 PM 1/27/03 +, you wrote:

>I can't believe it's very difficult. I mean, take an example - I'm
>looking at Evolution right now, a GTK app. I have it maximised; the tree
>view on the left has no scrollbars. If I make it too thin for the whole
>tree view to be completely displayed horizontally, guess what? A
>scrollbar appears. If I make it too short for it to be completely
>displayed vertically (I'm sure you can see where I'm going with
>this...:>), hey, another scrollbar appears! Just like that. SURELY this
>can't be *so* hard for the Mandrake tools to implement? I guess Mandrake
>has the slight extra problem of starting its tools up with an
>appropriate window size, but that must surely be possible too.

Hmmm... everything is possible with enough code but 
is it worth the bother, that's always the question.
I have just done a few minutes of search on the Internet, and
looking at :
http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/gtk/gtkwindow.html

I see that this is not a simple matter of setting a few properties
on a window to create it with toolbars; it seems that what you have
to do is to create a parent window of a special kind, and the real
window to be a child of this window. It seems that Gtk automatically
expands a window when widgets are added to it :

>A toplevel window will always change size to ensure its child widgets
>receive their requested size. This means that if you add child widgets,
>the toplevel window will expand to contain them.

For fun, I read also later :
> Furthermore GTK+ has a tendency to re-expand the window if size is 
>recalculated for any reason.

Well, I am a programmer and when I read about a software tool that
it exhibits 'tendancies', I run. It all but announces a world of 
horrors.

I don't really know as I don't touch Gtk, but what I find suspicious
is that feature is absent from most Gtk software. If *everyone* was
doing it but Mandrake, your opinion would be certain. But like another
poster said, Evolution is a big app; it is probably not your typical
open source software written by a few enthusiasts; it had some serious
corporate backing from what I understand.

Gerard





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Adam Williamson
On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 17:14, Gerard Patel wrote:

> >scrollbars.
> 
> Got your post from the archive, if this can be enabled below
> some resolution, it could be a fix. I don't know how easy it is
> to get at the screen resolution and enable scrollbars dynamically
> with GTK. I'd say it could not be accepted that software displays
> scrollbars when it's not necessary, because as you say, it's
> very ugly.

I can't believe it's very difficult. I mean, take an example - I'm
looking at Evolution right now, a GTK app. I have it maximised; the tree
view on the left has no scrollbars. If I make it too thin for the whole
tree view to be completely displayed horizontally, guess what? A
scrollbar appears. If I make it too short for it to be completely
displayed vertically (I'm sure you can see where I'm going with
this...:>), hey, another scrollbar appears! Just like that. SURELY this
can't be *so* hard for the Mandrake tools to implement? I guess Mandrake
has the slight extra problem of starting its tools up with an
appropriate window size, but that must surely be possible too.
-- 
adamw





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Gerard Patel
At 04:24 PM 1/27/03 +, you wrote:

>See my other post.

Sorry for the inappropriate reply, but I'm afraid that in my 
case the famous Sympa has eaten this mail.

> It doesn't NEED to dynamically adapt to anything. It
>needs...
>
>scrollbars.

Got your post from the archive, if this can be enabled below
some resolution, it could be a fix. I don't know how easy it is
to get at the screen resolution and enable scrollbars dynamically
with GTK. I'd say it could not be accepted that software displays
scrollbars when it's not necessary, because as you say, it's
very ugly.

Gerard





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Adam Williamson
On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 16:22, Gerard Patel wrote:
> At 03:02 PM 1/27/03 +, you (Adam Williamson) wrote:
> 
> >Not everyone uses KDE. As I say in my other message, GNOME is perfectly
> >usable at 1024x480 on my laptop - the biggest obstacle is the Mandrake
> >utilities. It's NOT a hard problem to fix.
> 
> What makes you so sure ? are you a programmer ?
> If so, I'd be happy to test your patches for mcc making it adapt dynamically
> to the screen resolution.

See my other post. It doesn't NEED to dynamically adapt to anything. It
needs...

scrollbars.

Hardly a revolutionary concept.
-- 
adamw





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Gerard Patel
At 03:02 PM 1/27/03 +, you (Adam Williamson) wrote:

>Not everyone uses KDE. As I say in my other message, GNOME is perfectly
>usable at 1024x480 on my laptop - the biggest obstacle is the Mandrake
>utilities. It's NOT a hard problem to fix.

What makes you so sure ? are you a programmer ?
If so, I'd be happy to test your patches for mcc making it adapt dynamically
to the screen resolution.

Gerard





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Adam Williamson
On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 14:50, David Walser wrote:

> Thierry is right that this bug is invalid.  It's
> absurd to expect them to support such a low
> resolution, when you need a minimum of 912x684 for KDE
> to really be usable.  Don't forget also that there are
> console and web-based versions of the draktools, so
> it's not the end of the world!

Not everyone uses KDE. As I say in my other message, GNOME is perfectly
usable at 1024x480 on my laptop - the biggest obstacle is the Mandrake
utilities. It's NOT a hard problem to fix.
-- 
adamw





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread Adam Williamson
On Mon, 2003-01-27 at 14:31, Reinout van Schouwen wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Jan 2003, [Bug 1048] wrote:
> 
> > --- Additional Comments From [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2003-01-27
> > 14:11 --- there several goal that're incompatibles: there's a
> > tradeoff between having a standalone tool being complete and runnable in
> > YxZ resolution.
> >
> > having the same tool runnable in the same resolution, but embedded in
> > mcc, thus with "mcc decoration" around plus logdrake to display logs, is
> > quite a lot more tough ...
> 
> Thierry, I have to emphasize this *is* a very serious problem. Please also
> read this article: http://mpt.phrasewise.com/2003/01/05#a433
> 
> You can't ask of people who are running at lower resolutions (perhaps on
> older hardware, or whose X configuration didn't succeed) to know the
> XFdrake command instead of using the control center. It is user
> unfriendliness to the nth degree.
> 
> Please reconsider your stance on this, I believe it is really important
> that the control center can be used in 640x480!
> 
> regards,

It's not even very difficult. Just allow scrollbars. They're ugly as
hell, sure, but those of us with non-standard resolutions would prefer
that to unnavigable applications. And they needn't show up for people
whose resolution allows the display of the whole app.

A workaround for people in this situation at the moment - I don't know
if there's an equivalent for different DE's / WM's, but with Sawfish
under GNOME 2, if you hold down  you can drag a window without
needing to be point to its title bar. This is absolutely invaluable on
my Picturebook (it displays at 1024x480, and it's not an uncommon
machine...to name one person, Linus Torvalds has one :>), and if someone
hadn't given me that tip I'd find most Mandrake tools unusable. (To be
fair, SuSE has the same problem).
-- 
adamw





Re: [Cooker] [Bug 1048] [drakconf] Screen layout makes it impossible to use!

2003-01-27 Thread David Walser
--- Reinout van Schouwen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> On Mon, 27 Jan 2003, [Bug 1048] wrote:
> 
> > --- Additional Comments From
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2003-01-27
> > 14:11 --- there several goal that're
> incompatibles: there's a
> > tradeoff between having a standalone tool being
> complete and runnable in
> > YxZ resolution.
> >
> > having the same tool runnable in the same
> resolution, but embedded in
> > mcc, thus with "mcc decoration" around plus
> logdrake to display logs, is
> > quite a lot more tough ...
> 
> Thierry, I have to emphasize this *is* a very
> serious problem. Please also
> read this article:
> http://mpt.phrasewise.com/2003/01/05#a433
> 
> You can't ask of people who are running at lower
> resolutions (perhaps on
> older hardware, or whose X configuration didn't
> succeed) to know the
> XFdrake command instead of using the control center.

Say what??

> Please reconsider your stance on this, I believe it
> is really important
> that the control center can be used in 640x480!

Thierry is right that this bug is invalid.  It's
absurd to expect them to support such a low
resolution, when you need a minimum of 912x684 for KDE
to really be usable.  Don't forget also that there are
console and web-based versions of the draktools, so
it's not the end of the world!

__
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