Ethereal-dev: Re: [Ethereal-dev] RFC: add option to change main GUI layout like in Analyzer pr

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From: "Ulf Lamping" <ulf.lamping@xxxxxx>
Date: Wed, 28 Apr 2004 15:28:23 +0200
Ethereal development <ethereal-dev@xxxxxxxxxxxx> schrieb am 28.04.04 14:04:52:
> 
> On Wed, Apr 28, 2004 at 09:42:11AM +0200, Biot Olivier wrote:
> > Let's try to summarize this:
> > 
> > L = packet list
> > D = packet dissection (or packet details)
> > B = packet (or reassembly) bytes
> > 
> > I'd propose we specify the lay-out of the window in 2 steps.
> > 
> > Step 1: Provide a "Window layout" option.
> > 
> > An end-user can toggle between the following options:
> > 
> > (o) Stacked   (.) Large left pane  (.) Large right pane
> >      +---+
> >      | 1 |          +---+---+          +---+---+
> >      +---+          |   | 2 |          | 1 |   |
> >      | 2 |          | 1 +---+          +---+ 3 |
> >      +---+          |   | 3 |          | 2 |   |
> >      | 3 |          +---+---+          +---+---+
> >      +---+
>  
> I would personally prefer a few more choices, similar to the pan
> newsreader, which also uses 3 panes ( http://pan.rebelbase.com/ .)
>  
> > Step 2: Fill in the panes.
> > 
> > Here there are many options:
> > 
> >  1. Provide a fixed list of entries (6 possibilities)
> > 	(o) L/D/B   (.) D/L/B   (.) B/L/D
> > 	(.) L/B/D   (.) D/B/L   (.) B/D/L
> >     The defaults would be:
> > 	- Stacked L/D/B
> > 	- Large left pane L/D/B
> > 	- Large right pane L/B/D
> > 
> >  2. Provide select boxes for the 3 panes, where the choices have
> >     to be made from the 3 possibilities L, D and B.
> > 
> >  3. Provide "progressive radio button choices" where the choice
> >     for 1 eliminates it in steps 2 and 3, and the choice for 2
> >     automatically determines the choice for 3.
> >     One must however provide a "reset" option in this scenario,
> >     as an end-user may want to remake his choice.
> > 
> >  4. A mix from 2 and 3 where the end-user is offered the
> >     possibility to set the pane type for the first 2 panes only
> >     by means of 2 select boxes; the 3rd panel is automatically
> >     filled in based on the end-user's input of the 2 first panes.
> 
> This sounds good.  Perhaps we could could leverage the code that's
> already in pan, and improve the radio buttons, bettering both products?
> (I haven't looked at the pan code, but I do like the pane arrangements.)
> 

Had a look at the pan layout preference dialog (http://pan.rebelbase.com/screenshots/prefs_2.png), and it looks good to me.

I will have a deeper look at it, and will send new mail if I got more infos from it.

However, it might be easier to implement our own preference code, than to reuse things from pan (except the icons, they look very good), but I must have a look at pan's sources first.

BTW: as drag-and-drop is not fully supported on all platforms (namely not on Win32), a simple dragging mechanism to change the GUI layout seem's to be currently impossible (unfortunately, as this would be the best solution IMHO).

Regards, ULFL

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