[bt-devel] bt-devel Digest, Vol 53, Issue 12

[Eeli Kaikkonen]

Dylon Edwards wrote:
>> Packaging the svn head at a random date is not necessarily a good idea.
>>     
>
> OK, I won't make another such decision without first checking with you (I
> can't remove it from the AUR without special permission from one of the TU's
> - AUR admins).
>
>   

As far as I know the svn head has been in a stable state since beta1 
because we haven't done any feature changes, so your package should be 
OK. This will change of course, hopefully quite soon.

> If you don't mind, I have some ideas I would like to submit for discussion:
>
> 1) In the MDI, create an option that would allow the user to "anchor" the
> windows together.  My idea would be to include a button along side the
> minimize/maximize buttons that would allow the user to toggle each window as
> (un)anchored.  Once anchored, the user could modify the size and arrangement
> of the windows - much like they can now, only each would expand/contract
> accordingly.  New windows would default to unanchored and would be placed on
> top the others.
>
>   

This needs some clarification, especially "much like they can now, only 
each would expand/contract accordingly".

> 2) The new bookshelf manager is awesome!  I was wondering if maybe we could
> include the extra repos by default - disabled at first - and display all the
> available modules on one widget (with the option of exploring the content of
> each repo individually - maybe by placing each repo in a listbox on the
> side)?  We could also create a searchbox that would filter through the
> modules according to specific search terms such as module name and
> description.
>
>   

See http://devel.bibletime.info/wiki/Bookshelf_Manager_redesign for 
monologue which I used as a development plan. When designing the 
bookshelf manager it should be remembered that it's not usually the most 
frequent task for users to install modules. Because our resources are 
limited we can't implement every wanted detail. Also, the user interface 
should offer as much useful functionality as possible but still stay 
clean and simple. Extra widgets bring extra complexity.

Therefore a filtering capability, for example, is not a feature I would 
implement. If you can point to a common use case where it would help 
tremendously I could reconsider.

> 3) I kind of like the feature in e-Sword that causes each
> commentary/dictionary/etc you have open to automatically search for a word
> you click on - much like what the Mag does with Strong's numbers.  Could we
> implement something like that in BT, along with a feature that would
> automatically navigate to a bible passage whenever one clicks on a specific
> reference in a commentary, as long as it is in a recognized format?
> Something like this would be especially awesome when making notes in the
> personal commentary, but would probably require some work.
>
>   

I think this is kind of functionality many users would find useful. 
There is still much to be automated in Bible study. But more than 
general ideas we need detailed analysis of possible user interface 
solutions. The bookshelf manager discussion page mentioned above is a 
good example. Or look at 
http://devel.bibletime.info/wiki/Talk:BibleTime2FrontendNavigator. 
Sometimes an idea is good but nobody finds a good UI for that.

> 4) When one window includes >= 2 modules, instead of rendering it useless if
> one module has something the other doesn't, maybe just display a "not found"
> message in the one lacking.
>
>   

Not a bad idea. It's also quite stupid that you can choose for example 
an OT book in a translation where there's only NT, even if it's alone in 
a single window.

> 5) In the search dialog, provide more options such as searching for a string
> as a whole, instead of only searching for substrings; also include options
> such as searching for an exact phrase (in one verse or continuing into
> others) or verses containing all the words (in no specific order).  Also,
> after performing a search, could we provide a window in the search dialog
> that would allow the user to preview the reference and then switch to it in
> his open work(s) if he so chooses?
>
>   
The clucene syntax enables many of these already:
his power (= his OR power)
his AND power
"his power"
his AND po*

We use verses as search documents so interverse searches are not 
possible, at least ATM.

The reference can be opened in a Bible window by dragging and dropping 
it. This feature may be hard to find but I can't think of a better one.

> 6) GnomeSword's tabbed sessions idea is pretty cool (much like Dolphin's and
> Konqueror's).  Could we do something like that, allowing multiple sessions
> to be opened at the same time in different tabs?
>
>   

I have already thought this. Generally it's a good idea. It would give a 
very fast and visible access to several sessions simultaneously. Saving 
and opening sessions is now slow and clumsy.

The problem is our window UI solution. The windows can be arranged 
manually or automatically. If manually, their sizes and placements must 
be exact. The bookshelf and mag are also part of the UI and the window 
sizes and the layout affect these, too. Therefore the whole UI should be 
inside a tab - but even then the windows depend on the size of the main 
window. When a session is opened all sizes and arrangements including 
the main window should be restored, and that makes tabs quite much 
unusable as a solution.

> 7) When highlighting verses/paragraphs in open works, instead of
> highlighting stuff from all the works, could we just highlight the work(s)
> currently under the cursor?  Say I have 2 bible works open, side-by-side,
> and want to copy several verses from <one> of them to a separate document.
> Would it be too difficult to have BT only highlight the verses directly
> under the cursor, similar to a rubber-band effect, and not highlight those
> of the other unless I drag the cursor to it?  BT already does this when
> highlighting only one verse, but highlights them all if you try to do more.
>
>   

Do you mean in parallel view? This depends on the html layout and the 
html renderer. The columns are implemented as a table. Maybe it's not an 
optimal solution but will not be changed for a while.

> 8) I read in a forum where somebody had asked whether the Mag's font size
> could be adjusted, could we allow different fontsizes to be set in each
> module's window?  If so, when keyboard shortcuts are re-implemented, we
> could assign shortcuts such as <Ctrl><+>, <Ctrl><->, <Ctrl><0>, and even
> <Ctrl><mousewheel> to zooming in, out, and back to normal.  If I were to do
> this, I wouldn't have a separate fontsize combobox in each window, but
> rather would place a Zoom In, Out, and Back to Normal option in the View
> menu that would affect only the active window.
>
>   

Ctrl+/- should work, they are a khtml feature. (Most other shortcuts 
should work, too, they just aren't configurable.) The font settings are 
now for each language but not for modules. Per module settings could be 
reasonable.


> 9) Could we maybe implement a feature that would allow the Mag, Bookshelf,
> and Bookmark toolbars to be (un)anchored and rearanged according to a user's
> preference?  This goes along with idea 1.
>   

That would be nice and has been thought already. It's just too much work 
for now.


--Eeli