[GUI] More points for the technical discussion

Wolfgang Jeltsch wolfgang@jeltsch.net
Mon, 17 Feb 2003 22:09:53 +0100


On Monday, 2003-02-17, 20:25, CET, Nick Name wrote:
> On Sun, 16 Feb 2003 20:58:05 +0000 Glynn Clements
> <glynn.clements@virgin.net> wrote:
> > Generally, you only set widget properties programmatically if you  ha=
ve to
> > (i.e. because the values are determined dynamically).
>
> Yes,yes :) I was not proposing any true API, just arguing that one can
> abstract over a yesNoCancel dialog window, parametrizing it with the ve=
rb to
> use on macos and kde3 to avoid a "yes/no" question.

I think the distinction between static values (which don't have to be com=
puted=20
at run-time) and dynamic values (which have to be computed at run-time) i=
s=20
not very natural. It is just like a distinction between squares and=20
rectangles which are not squares. I would prefer if we would handle stati=
c=20
values the same way we handle dynamic values. That would mean that certai=
n=20
static values would appear in the source code.

>[...]

> This does not solve the verb conjugation problem,indeed (how does apple
> handle it in internationalization?)

Your approch for the Yes-No-Cancel dialogs was to specify a verb describi=
ng=20
the action (e.g., "save") and to let the system produce the button captio=
ns.=20
Why shouldn't we just define a function which has the captions of the Yes=
 and=20
the No button directly as arguments? An example application of it could b=
e
    dialogYesNoCancel "Save" "Don't save" <other arguments>
which would name the buttons "Save", "Don't save" and "Cancel" on the Mac=
 and=20
"Yes", "No" and "Cancel" on a PC running Windows or KDE (:-)).

> [...]

> Vincenzo

Wolfgang