Bugzilla – Bug 113699
/etc/sysconfig editor treeview section too small and non-resizable
Last modified: 2009-04-29 18:28:36 UTC
The /etc/sysconfig editor module of yast has a treeview on the left which is a fixed width and non-resizable. Even to read individual key names one has to scroll backwards and forwards horizontally. eg: open /etc/sysconfig editor and try to find the network -> firewall -> SuSEfirewall2-> FW_ALLOW_INCOMING_HIGHPORTS_TCP. The treeview could be given a larger percentage of the screen width since all that is done on the right is read the description and set the values, the navigation is done in the treeview and it is difficult to navigate when you can't see the entire values without constant scrolling. The splitter between the treeview and the other elements should ideally be resizable so if you're navigating to a particularly deep section of the tree you can still see it without scrolling.
Wizard::CreateTreeDialog() doesn't allow to set size of the tree widget, it has same size as help text. AFAIK yast UI doesn't support resizable splitter. Or is there any workaround? Stefan?
Technically, this should be no big deal. But it had been a usability requirement that this border be consistent from one dialog to the next, which of course it wouldn't be the case any more if a user could resize that border in one dialog and then the next level of those dialogs pop up. I really don't mind one way or the other. Sigi?
I will have a look onto it.
Created attachment 95325 [details] Screenshot 800x500
Created attachment 95326 [details] Screenshot resized
Reorganization of usability-bug assignments. We try to discharge the number of our bug entries in the next weeks. => Reassigned to efuchs
I neither like the solution of the resizable tree widget nor the solution with the horizontal scrollbar - as it is now. Why isn't it possible to implement tooltips? Probably there are more YaST modules where I think tooltips could make sense.
Product changed to: openSUSE 10.2
What do you see as the downside of having a resizable treeview? Aside from it being a not very elegant solution. Another option would be some kind of drilldown widget for yast.
> What do you see as the downside of having a resizable treeview? Aside from > it being a not very elegant solution. Excuse me. Resizable pane with treeview inside (we are talking about this, right) is not elegant? Maybe I am just biased by my experience, but assuming we have limited space (dialog) what could be more elegant? Even theoretically (or in other words -- why it is not elegant?).
> Excuse me. Resizable pane with treeview inside (we are talking about this, > right) is not elegant? > Maybe I am just biased by my experience, but assuming we have limited space > (dialog) what could be more elegant? Even theoretically (or in other words -- > why it is not elegant?). Personally I'm not keen on any dialogue needing to be resizable or scrollable just to use it. Where in modern GUIs do you have interface elements that must be resized or scrolled horizontally to be used?, not very frequently because it is annoying. For a treeview there is a great deal of wasted space. Look at a really deep treeview like the one in the windows registry editor, One has to resize the left hand pane extremely wide, and there is a great deal of wasted space due to a treeview's shape. Elegance is about refined beauty and style, I don't think that this applies to a clumsy resizable pane. However, this is probably the simplest solution, and no other solution seems much better at present.
> Personally I'm not keen on any dialogue needing to be resizable or > scrollable > just to use it. It is a must-have. I see too many dialogs designed to be fool-proof, but at the end user installed custom fonts and nothing fits, or set some big sizes with the same effect. It is "experience-wise" to give users choice to resize dialogs. > Where in modern GUIs do you have interface elements that must > be resized or scrolled horizontally to be used?, not very frequently because > it is annoying. Horizontally, hmm, good observation. > For a treeview there is a great deal of wasted space. Look at a > really deep treeview like the one in the windows registry editor, One has to > resize the left hand pane extremely wide, and there is a great deal of > wasted space due to a treeview's shape. I agree. But! For now sysconf editor (and other yast modules) are not only elegant but obscure (sad but true). So I would rather opt for adding splitter than scrolling each time the treeview (very annoying). > Elegance is about refined beauty and style, I > don't think that this applies to a clumsy resizable pane. Here, when considering tree, you are right. In general -- no, see KMail, it is easier to fit the panes according to what you are focused at. > However, this is probably the simplest solution, and no other solution seems > much better at present. How about "file/directory" approach -- Control Center in KDE for example, it is elegant, productive, fast, I like it very much. But I would still, even with this mode opt for a splitter -- why not giving users a bit more freedom especially when it does not make any harm.
please answer comment #7
Evamaria, please do not make mess -- the NEEDINFO is a status, when the developers need info from users (reporters) -- not vice versa :-).
thank you for your help! I appreciate it very much, but I don't like your tone.
OK, it's nice that you guys make this a general UI discussion, but the problem is real and should be fixed within Yast. The proposed solution from Evamaria (#7) is to add a tooltip to the tree widget item if it's cut, so that the user can see the full entry without having to use 1600x1200. The UI itself could use some cleaning up - picking a tree widget is perhaps not the best choice, but then again this yast modules isn't the most often used either :)
I think that adding tooltips is a good idea, Stefan? (The problem of this module is that amount of the variables is huge, there are usually hundreds of variables in /etc/sysconfig (just try "grep '=' /etc/sysconfig/* | wc -l"). It's hard to design a simple UI in this case.
I don't think tooltips are an acceptable solution, with a sufficiently deep tree one would not even be able to see what item the tooltip refers to.
(In reply to comment #18) > I don't think tooltips are an acceptable solution, with a sufficiently deep > tree one would not even be able to see what item the tooltip refers to. That's pretty academic. The trees in question (sysconfig editor) are not that deep.
Some are 6 levels deep already, not counting future expansion. There are currently entire pages of items with only the same prefix visible, mouse-overing dozens of items to find the one required is not efficient comparing to glancing down a list.
I agree with Benjamin. Another issue -- tooltips are completely useless when scrolling the content. And due to extremely limited view of this tree the user is forced constantly to scroll the view. In other words -- tooltips are nice but solves nothing here really. However, even small something is appreciated (ever more splitter is appreciated -- when we already talk about small improvements in terms of redesigning the whole GUI in this editor).
Well, OK. Maybe we can do both. I just checked in the code: Whether or not that generic YQWizard widget has a tree widget on the left pane is known at widget creation time (it is passed as `opt(`treeEnabled)), so it's fairly easy to use a moveable splitter. I'll have to check if this affects all the eye-candy stuff in that widget, though: There are several color gradients that consist of several pixmap parts. It might or might not work out to move that border around. But I'll give it a try.
*** Bug 300749 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Postponed - too many open issues that are much more pressing
mass reopening all 10.2 LATER+REMIND bugs.
close all 10.2 LATER/REMIND bugs as WONTFIX. Reopen yourself if you still plan to work on it.
Works in gtk.