[Xerte] Xerte 3 wish list

Wed Jun 9 13:12:36 BST 2010

I mostly design for 1024x768 resolution and use an application width in Xerte of 950px. I'm working on a 1440x900 Display, so 400px minimum width would be OK. But considering that not all users have the luxury of an external display attached to their laptop it could get cumbersome to work with Xerte on a "normal" laptop display (as long as we are not able to zoom the stage).
Why will the property window need so much space?
I attached two mock-ups of how I can imagine the Xerte interface. Personally I would prefer number two. It would also be possible to include the properties section right beneath the tree.

Peter

On 07.06.2010, at 22:58, Julian Tenney wrote:

> On the subject of docking, where did you imagine it going? I can successfully dock it under the document tree, but need to make the whole left hand side 400px wide. Does that work for you?
>  
>  
>  
> 
> From: Tenney Julian
> Sent: Mon 07/06/2010 09:46
> To: Xerte discussion list
> Subject: RE: [Xerte] Xerte 3 wish list
> 
> Good ideas both. The first is a bit tricky as there are no native dockable components in Flex, but I think I’ve seen some components from other people to handle this. I’d really appreciate any help anyone can offer towards coding the GUI, so if anyone else is doing any Flex and would like to get involved in working on the interface, please let me know!
>  
> Second one is easy, and it’s little ideas like this that will make the application much better – thanks,
>  
> J
>  
> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Peter Huppertz
> Sent: 31 May 2010 10:25
> To: Xerte discussion list
> Subject: Re: [Xerte] Xerte 3 wish list
>  
> Regarding wishes:
>  
> - I'm not totally lucky with the floating version of the properties panel. I think I would prefer to have it on the right hand side of my screen. Perhaps it is possible to make it dockable, so one can decide to have it as a floating window or docked to one side?
> - Also it would be nice to have the type of the icon displayed somewhere in the properties window, so you don't have to remember all the different icon types by their thumbnail
>  
> Peter
>  
> On 27.05.2010, at 16:53, Julian Tenney wrote:
> 
> 
> To answer both your mails:
>  
> Wishes
> -          The properties window disappears if you resize the window, because it doesn’t keep track of the resizing. I’ll fix that at some point.
> -          Right click options will be possible, but I’ve not done any yet
> -          Recent project – yes, that will mean writing out to a file somewhere to remember them
> -          Maybe we should have prefixes on the list posts
> [Xerte]
> [Xerte 3]
> [Toolkits]
> [ANN: …] for announcements. I’ll start doing that and you can follow the lead.
>  
> Issues
> -          Properties window. You can resize the window to find it – it won’t have disappeared, but it’s not ideal There is work remaining on the interface, so I’ll add it to my list.
> -          Auto-preview. Since I never write code that crashes, I’d never considered that ;-) Maybe it should wait for you to preview it…
> -          I have a dilemma about the spark classes. Everything is mx: at the minute. I would like to use spark where there are spark components, but when I’ve tried, I’ve run into a few things that aren’t ideal. I can’t remember what now, but one recent memory was to do with how to make a good job in the editor of using the spark border components. Part of me says ‘well, the mx: components are a LOT more powerful than the existing Xerte icons, so we’re much better off, but another part of me say ‘let’s try and get with the latest stuff’. It also means going through the MetaData.as and making sure that all the relevant properties, methods, styles and events reflect the underlying components – and in fact this needs doing anyway – as there are some errant / not relevant ones in there right now – I created MetaData.as by manually typing them all in from the help, so that’s not trivial…
>  
> Basically I just need some time to try it with the spark classes and see what happens. Also, there are not spark classes for every mx class, so you end up with a mixture, and I’m not sure that’s so great…
>  
> -          I think the rotate was done using animateProperty – I probably just worked quickly and followed up on code that used blur, so it’s just misnamed.
> -          The template stuff has much to do…
> -          No it doesn’t save automatically – I can add in all those things later,
>  
> I think you cans see how much power is in there now…
>  
> HTH,
>  
> J
>  
>  
>  
>  
>  
> From: xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk [mailto:xerte-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of Kemp Johnathan
> Sent: 27 May 2010 15:15
> To: xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> Subject: [Xerte] Xerte 3 wish list
>  
> I have had a chance to start playing around with Xerte 3 and it looks like it is going to amazing.
>  
> My early dabbles have left me with a few things I would like to see in Xerte 3 if possible.
>  
> 1. Can we have right click options on icons e.g.
>   Properties (To open the property window, I know it is not supposed to close but sometimes it does and you can't get it back). 
>   Delete (to move the icon to a deleted folder for temporary holding),
>   Duplicate (to create a second copy of the icon). I know from a recent posting there is the option to ctrl + drag to duplicate, but having a visible way to duplicate icons that was consistent with Xerte 2.n would be nice.
> 2. Would it be possible where you have properties with a predictable set of available values e.g. easing function, to provide a list of those values rather than a blank text field? Whilst some users might want to write their own easing function (I am guessing here) most will just want to use one that is already defined. But it would be much quicker and more intuitive to select this from a list of valid options than it currently is to have to research what options are available and then type one in.
> 3. Can we have the open dialogue remembering a list of recent projects?
> 4. I recently had to change my account for this mailing list. I vaguely remember there being some reference to being able to categorise postings. As the Xerte project is getting bigger and bigger - now there is Xerte 3 and I guess at some point Xerte 3 toolkits, would it be useful to be able to differentiate in some way which product a posting refers too?
>  
> Kind regards
>  
> Johnathan
> _______________________________________________
> Xerte mailing list
> Xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/xerte
>  
> ==================================
> Peter Huppertz
> E-learning and IT Specialist
> International Centre for Asset Recovery
> Basel Institute on Governance
> Phone: +41 61 205 55 18
> Fax: +41 61 267 55 19
>  
> _______________________________________________
> Xerte mailing list
> Xerte at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
> http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/xerte

==================================
Peter Huppertz
E-learning and IT Specialist
International Centre for Asset Recovery
Basel Institute on Governance
Phone: +41 61 205 55 18
Fax: +41 61 267 55 19

-------------- next part --------------
Skipped content of type multipart/related