[bt-devel] question about drop-down lists

[Greg Hellings]

On Sun, Oct 12, 2008 at 4:11 AM, Eeli Kaikkonen <
eekaikko at mail.student.oulu.fi> wrote:

> Greg Hellings wrote:
> > Possibly place a button next to the free-entry box that pops up a chooser
> > dialog which then goes away when the selection is made?  Or when you
> press
> >
>
> It's quite obvious that some kind of popup is needed. But that's not
> saying anything new. I need very specific suggestions now which can be
> analyzed thoroughly. If you haven't read the wiki page, please do it to
> see what I mean. We have to think about the visibility, size, mouse
> movement length, amount of mouse clicks, different use cases...
>
> > it toggles the menu bar between single and triple entry boxes?
> >
>
> That could be one way to make choosing between two widgets easier, but
> It would clutter the UI. I would rather place it in the View menu or
> config dialog, though your suggestion gives a quicker and easier way to
> change the widget. And I would still prefer one well-designed widget
> over two worse ones.


I disagree.  I think there are two perfectly reasonable mechanisms already
presented: the single text box which responds to a keyboard entry both to
receive focus and to indicate entry; and a second one, like the submenu
pop-ups that you mention in the wiki article.  Fundamentally we're trying to
reach the same goal: entering the user's destination.  However, that's where
the similarity ends.  In the same way that I don't want one fantastic device
to tell me both when my food is done and when my sleeping is done, I don't
want one device to enter my destination with a keyboard and with a mouse.
The simplicity of the submenu system for mouse users makes is ideal for
mouse use - the simplicity of a single text entry box makes it ideal for
keyboard users.  Any sort of unified hybrid system is going to sacrifice
beauty, simplicity, rapidity or some other base functionality.  Don't fight
it -- use two systems.

A single key press to capture input in the input box, and a single button to
bring up the submenu display would be ideal.  And placing the option for
which to display in the configure panel or view menu seems perfect.  My
understanding is that users will tend to choose one and stick with it, so
having both displayed simultaneously is confusing and unnecessary.  I don't
think that any single widget, no matter how well designed, will be as good
as two well-designed widgets in the present case.

--Greg
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