[Pythonmac-SIG] Re: [wxPython-mac] Draft wxPackageManager Screenshot

[Kevin Ollivier]

On Thursday, July 31, 2003, at 10:47  AM, Chris Barker wrote:

> Kevin Ollivier wrote:
>> it's at a point where I can take a picture and get
>> some comments on UI issues.
>
> It looks great.
>
>> - the options box needs to be moved up a bit, I'm using sizers so I
>> need to play with this some more ;-)
>
> Frankly, I think it looks just fine, but you could put a space at the
> bottom if you wanted. Let me know if you want any help with this.

Actually, I figured out the problem. I was just padding the top and 
bottom margins too much. Now it looks better (to me, anyways, I'm picky 
about that stuff =)

>> - I'd like there to be some way of visually conveying the status of a
>> package. I'm leaning towards little green/yellow/red gumdrops
>> (installed/outdated/not installed) next to the package name but I have
>> to figure out how to put those into a list box or something similar,
>> maybe a wxListCtrl. Or is this overkill?
>
> No. Visual feedback is important, and I'm pretty sure you can put an
> icon in a wxListControl, at least in the first column. Note that there
> is talk of having the packages in some kind of hierarchical list, so a
> tree control may be warranted.
>
> Another option is to make the text itself a different color.

I considered changing text color, but then I thought it would be too 
distracting or hard to read, especially yellow packages on Mac. =)

The wxListControl approach is probably best and I will play with it 
some more. Eventually we may need to move to a tree view, but I want to 
keep it simple for now.

>> - I'm planning on adding a "Show only: Installed/Not
>> installed/Outdated/Not installed and outdated" combobox above the
>> package list so that people can filter and see only what they need.
>
> Perhaps a set of check boxes:
>
> O show installed
> X show outdated
> X show uninstalled
> ...
>
> That way it would be clear what you are looking at, and the user could
> select any combo they wanted.

This would work, maybe I'll try it this way for now. In the worst case 
I could move this to a "View" menu item if the interface started 
getting crowded. (I'd like to display more package info when the user 
clicks on the package as well.)

>> Please let me know what you think!
>
> It looks great!
>
> And if this provides an incentive to make wxPython a "Battery", all the
> better!

Amen to that! ;-)

Thanks,

Kevin