Re: TitleButtonBalloons

Sasha_Vasko@osca.state.mo.us
Mon, 12 Mar 2001 10:18:02 -0600 


Well, ok I'm easy to convince :)

Things like :

> Mouse 3         6       A       Maximize 0 100 "Maximize Tall"

will not be possible, since everything after function name is treated as
function body, due to free-text format of the function declaration.
Besides that will make binding lines awfully long - they are too long
already.

What I can do is add another option o feel :

ContextHelp   <context>  <help text>

where <context> will be 0-9 for buttons
R - for root window
F - window frame
S - botom bar
I - icon window
T - Titlebar
W - application window

same as in bindings actually.

Needless to say that this sort of thing will not go into 1.8.* series,
so it is like requesting Linus Torvalds to put some nifty new feature into
kernel, shortly after stable kernel release. This will go into development
tree, but it will be about 2-3 month before development tree will become
usefull
for average user. I know there is an opinion that AfterStep is dead and not
being worked on, due to lack of fuss about it in media. But it is not true
-
we are actively working on it and long release cycle is nothing but
indication
of the complexity of the project, scale of changed and the fact that there
are
only 2 developers working on it - me on afterstep proper and libs and
Andrew Ferguson on ASCP. So bear with us - we are working as hard as we
can.
Or better yet - help us :)

Cheers
Sasha Vasko.

> Sasha Vasko/OSCA/Courts/Judicial wrote:
> >
> > > Is there a way to control the text in a titleButtonBalloon?
> > > .....
> > > I would like to add and change the buttons on the title bar and
> > > control what is displayed in the titleButtonBallons.  How is this
> > > done?
> >
> > TitleButtonBalloons only display list of what mouse clicks do what
> > there is no way to customize it. You can either turn it on or off.
> > I personally do not see any need for any such feature. Anybody care
> > to convince me otherwise ?
> >
> > Cheers
> > Sasha Vasko
>
> Thank you for your quick response.  And yes, I'd like to try to
> convince you;)  With the ability to add up to 10 buttons on the
> title bar and allow for 3 operation per button, it seems obvious
> to me that balloon help would allow people to share themes that
> are functional as well as interesting to look at.  If you load
> a theme, you have to try each mouse button on each title bar
> button to see what it does.  Help balloons with meaningful
> messages would be of great help here.  For example.  I like
> setting a button to toggle maximize tall, and maximize wide, as
> well as maximize full screen.  With the current help balloons, I
> can only indicate the button has a maximize function, not what
> it will actually do.  A help balloon I could configure would
> make that perfectly clear by just passing the mouse over the
> titlebarbutton.
>
> I'm sure there are many other examples where this would help
> a new user to quickly understand a themes functionality.
> Configurable help balloons has my vote.
>
> Perhaps a simple string option in the feel file?  Something
> like this would be easy to use:
>
> Mouse 3         6       A       Maximize 0 100 "Maximize Tall"
> Mouse 2         6       A       Maximize 0 100 "Maximize Wide"
> Mouse 1         6       A       Maximize
>
> The help string could be an option.  If it's left off, then the
> default terse "Maximize" message would be displayed.
>
>
> The title bar itself is configurable for mouse clicks, so the
> option for a balloon here would be good too.
>
> Finally to give complete control over the balloons, maybe an
> option in the help string for a button could disable the help
> just for that button or title bar.  Something like:
> Mouse 1         2       A       Delete "NBH"
>
> NBH for No Balloon Help
>
> I guess you would have to check for the number of string
> arguments in PopUps so a help message could come after the
> function call:
> Mouse 1         3       A       PopUp "Window" "Help Message"
>
> Just a few ideas.
> Thanks,
> --
> Lost Worlds
> CAS
>
> AfterStep Rules!  This is a great window manager
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