Re: [lmi] Generating screenshots automatically

[Greg Chicares]

On 2009-02-11 20:06Z, Greg Chicares wrote:
> 
>> VS> >  A variation: create a DIA file containing the screenshot and the text
>> VS> > boxes with the help text. 
>> VS> 
>> VS> ...and instead of generating it from scratch, only update the manually
>> VS> tweaked files and preserve placement changes.
>> 
>>  Yes, this should still be relatively easy to do and would be almost
>> perfect, wouldn't it?
> 
> That sounds just about perfect to me. If there are no further ideas,
> then let's pick that as Phase II.

Yet another variation: instead of drawing lines or arrows to connect a
control to its annotation, enumerate both serially. Then the annotations
read as footnotes. Here's a specimen wherein to save time I number only
five fields, but I think it makes the idea clear:

  https://savannah.nongnu.org/file/skin_plan_panel-numbered.png?file_id=17447

Numbers do lack the graphically direct connection that arrows provide.
However, several panels have a rather large number of items, especially
when individual buttons in a wxRadioBox are counted, so arrows may get
too crowded. Let me illustrate:

  http://www.650motorcycles.com/81SolidStateSchematic.jpg

What's most important, though, is that numbers are probably easier to
implement than arrows, and don't need any DIA files at all. And then
we can permanently decouple the screenshot from the annotations, which
means the annotations can be just flat text in html <p> elements...which
also means they might have hyperlinks someday.

Clear enough. Easier to implement and maintain. More flexible. And the
algorithm is in P.

The form of the numbers is an implementation detail, but let me toss
out an idea or two here. Placement of the numbers on the screenshot
could become tricky if we want them aligned with titles. In the specimen
above, I manually placed 2-5 just outside the northwest corners of their
controls, but put 1 in a different spot. Instead of letting this devolve
into another NP-hard problem, why don't we just center each number on
the center of its control?

I generally avoid using color on dialogs, but it can nevertheless be
introduced by OS theming. I would suppose that most themes would let us
use a full-hued red as a contrasting color in general. (In the specimen,
I just picked the first reddish color I saw in the GIMP; it's not that
I'm especially enamored of that particular shade.)

Drawing a circle around each number might make its footnote-nature more
apparent. I suppose that'd be nice if it's not too difficult to do.

Is it possible in general to choose a number font that'll contrast with
the dialog font? A larger font size or weight might also make the numbers
stand out better.

If numbers tend to obscure part of a dialog over which they're superimposed,
then we might want to make them, say, half-transparent. It's hard to guess
right now whether that'd ever be worthwhile.