Re: [XForms] Bug in fdesign

[Jens Thoms Toerring]

Hi everyone,

   I'm back to fiddling with XForms and will try to address
all the things that came up in the last few weeks in chrono-
logical order.

> On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 12:59:38PM +0000, Paul Nicholson wrote:
> > The attached .fd file has 2 objects.
> > 
> > I can sort-of reproduce this.
> > 
> > Starting with a blank form, select Spinner from the object
> > menu, drag to create a spinner, and then drag again to create
> > another spinner without noticing that Spinner has de-selected
> > itself in the object menu.   Of course, same for all other
> > objects too.   Not a bug, but failure by me to notice that
> > the object had de-selected.
> 
> But you should get a visual clue that there actually is
> just a single spinner, don't you? One could try to not
> draw a "rubber band" when there's nothing selected but
> that's all I could do (if I find the place, fdesign is
> not the simplest program to understand;-)

I had another look at this and it's not that simple: when
something is selected in the object type browser clicking
into the window and then moving the mouse creates a new
object when the mouse button is released. But when nothing
is selected in the object type browser the same sequence
of events has a different meaning, it is used for selec-
ting object(s).

So not drawing a rubber band when no object type is
selected (or not deselecting the selected object type
after an object has been created) is not really an al-
ternative since then we would lose the ability to
select one or more objects...

So the whole thing is a interface design issue that can't
be corrected by a relatively simple code change but would
require a change of how you can interact with the program.
And that's something I would prefer to spend quite a bit
of time to think about it and discuss this here before
I start fiddling with it.

> > While we're on the subject of fdesign bugs, maybe I have
> > a little one to offer.
> > 
> > It's a rendering artifact.
> > 
> > Open fdesign, don't bother to create a form or anything,
> > just run the slider up and down the Objects menu a few
> > times.   It creates spurious horizontal lines just above
> > and below the Objects menu box.

That's the next thing I will try to fix. Most of the
work already has been done by Paul, so that shouldn't
be too difficult;-)
                        Best regards, Jens
-- 
  \   Jens Thoms Toerring  ________      address@hidden
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