[Bf-committers] UI layout engine

[Ben Batt]

On Nov 26, 2007, at 11:48 AM, Alexander Ewering wrote:
> My (and probably EVERY other coder's!) primary concern with the
> current system
> is not the fact that the coordinates are stored inside source files,
> but the
> fact that specifying coordinates is even NECESSARY!
>

Yes, absolutely!

On Nov 27, 2007 4:06 AM, Bobby Parker <sh0rtwave at gmail.com> wrote:
> At the bottom of things, what you're talking about is a layout manager
> similar to what's available in Swing(Java) and Gtk(C/C++...see the
> Glade UI tool and how it uses containers).

I find the layout management in Qt (C++) quite nice. It's easy to set
things up so the right stuff stretches when containers change size,
etc.

On Nov 26, 2007, at 11:48 AM, Alexander Ewering wrote:
> 2) Instead, make containers which take PERCENTAGES
> relative to parent
>     as coordinates

This might be a good first step, but I think it would be nicer to not
even have to specify percentages. Specifying widget sizing behaviour
would be better (e.g. minimum size, stretch to fit, etc.).

On Mon, 26 Nov 2007, trip somewhere wrote:
> position: relative;
> top: 12px;
> left: 24px;
>
> Thats not simple? I am not sure what is more simpler then that.

It's simple, but it's also (IMO) ugly and hard-coded :-)
If the widget contents change, then coordinates have to change, and
that's not pretty.


On Nov 27, 2007 6:45 AM, Alexander Ewering <blender at instinctive.de> wrote:
> Something like CSS is simply not necessary and not appropriate, because we
> are not designing a web site, we're merely trying to automatically arrange
> buttons. So, please...
>

I agree, implementing CSS (or a CSS-like engine) would probably be
excessive and inappropriate.


Just my $0.10 :-)

Ben