[Sugar-devel] Journal feature request--more data in main display

[Gary C Martin]

On 30 Jun 2009, at 00:32, Michael Stone wrote:

-- big snip from old thread ---

>> - Better Anything toolbar filter palette (use a grid layout to
>> minimise scrolling)
>
> How do you think
>
>   http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Design_Team/Designs/Toolbars
>
> would work out here?

An 'Anything' filter button opening a palette with a grid layout of  
filter options could work as is right now. It could be a relatively  
small and contained code change, for a relatively large improvement in  
usability. I guess (in Ebens toolbar mock-ups) a pop-up row could be  
filled with the same filter options, but it would need to cope with  
multi row layouts as the number of filter options grows over time  
(i.e. as more Activities are installed).

More generally regarding the toolbar mock-ups, some points needing  
clarification:

- Stop button must be visible at ALL times, none of these mock-ups  
show a stop
- Activity collaboration control has disappeared, assume this should  
be a primary icon
- No solution yet for textual names/labels (inventing unique and clear  
icons is going to get real tough, real fast, and many Activity authors  
already struggle creating decent activity icons).
- Activity title has disappeared from toolbar is that intentional to  
rely on the naming dialogue every-time?

Being Mr ActivityTeam at the moment, I do really worry about the  
amount of work this is going to be to get Activities updated and  
complying to a large toolbar redesign. Supporting both toolbar API  
styles will help, but I think we'll end up with multiple toolbar  
styles in different Activities for perhaps 6 months to a year or more.  
That's a bad backward step for usability. Just look at the amount of  
time/effort it is taking to migrate Activities over to SL  
infrastructure, let alone making anything but minor maintenance code  
changes to them.

>> - Perhaps a Tag toolbar filter palette (could be a mini tag cloud)
>
> What do you think of Scott's journal2 design here?

Technically? A massive redesign requiring a rock-star lead developer  
and a long-term commitment to refine, debug, and stabilise over  
several Sugar platform release cycles. There are nice ideas in there,  
I particularly like the idea of turning directory paths into tags as a  
way to access the file system. But, a much simpler option would be to  
let a user type something like "/usr/local/..." in the existing  
Journal search and have the Journal display a basic folders/files  
view, typing just "/" would show the root level and a user could  
navigate old school style from there. Copy/paste could be extended to  
move content between Journal/file-system views, and external devices  
could show the file-system view by default so a USB key or SD card  
could be more easily managed.

Regards,
--Gary