[Scummvm-devel] Options dialog design (long!)

Torbjorn.E.Andersson at tietoenator.com Torbjorn.E.Andersson at tietoenator.com
Sun Mar 21 09:54:10 CET 2004


Hmph... I shouldn't type email addresses when I'm tired. One more
attempt to get it to a mailing list that actually exists... :-)

Max Horn <max at quendi.de> wrote:

> So what? I think it's a very bad idea to argue such things soley based 
> on "how XYZ does it". Windows (still) has some very very bad UI 
> mistakes in it, IMO

I wasn't trying to say that. I was trying to figure out where my
expectations may have come from. And Windows is the only OS I've used
that had reasonable support for changing resolution/colour depth on the
fly. (My old Mac Plus didn't support this, for some reason. ;-)

Making no attempt to be consistent, this is the behaviour that would
seem least unnatural to me:

> 1) User opens options dialog, changes resolution, closes the dialog 
> with "OK" (this one is easy)

Barring catastrophic failure, I would expect the resolution to be what
the user selected in the dialog. (Though given my background, I wouldn't
expect it to happen until after I press "OK".)

> 2) User changes graphics mode with hotkey, opens options dialog (what 
> setting should be displayed?).

As I said before, I wouldn't expect the hotkey to change the config file.

In a way, I'd like to see both the current setting (from the file) and
the new setting (defaulting to what is currently used). Might not be a
workable solution, but it'd be nice to have some sort of indication that
the old setting is about to change.

(In the "Edit game" dialog, I would always expect to see the settings
stored in the file, though, but that's a different case, I guess.)

Re-reading what I've written, I think pressing "OK" would update the
file and leave the current mode unchanged.

> 3) User opens options dialog, then while it is open uses a hotkey to 
> switch graphics mode. See 2) for questions

I wouldn't expect the setting to change. I'm not used to seeing dialogs
that react to things that happen "behind their back", so to speak.

When the user presses "OK", I'd expect the setting shown in the dialog
to be saved/used, not what happens to be active at the time.

> 4) User changes graphics mode with hotkey; opens options dialog; 
> changes graphics mode in popup; uses hotkey again; now closes the 
> dialog. Which graphics mode will be active, which will be stored into 
> the config file?

The first half is like question 2. The config file and the current mode
would not agree. The dialog may default to the current setting, but
it'd be nice if there was an indication that it's not the same as in the
config file.

The second half is like question 3. The dialog setting would remain, and
when pressing "OK" that's the one that'd be stored/used.

(Mind you, I still keep my .scummvmrc write-protected because once I've
found the settings I like, and sorted the games in what seems like a
logical fashion to me, I don't want some clumsy user changing them by
mistake. Particularly not if that clumsy user happens to be me. :-)

Torbjörn

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Torbjörn Andersson
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