User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; Konqueror/4.0; Linux) KHTML/4.0.0 (like Gecko) Build Identifier: this is a pretty minor bug. the xfce-help dialog ends up showing, then resizing itself. the gnome hig has a section that discourages showing windows, then resizing [1], so i think this behavior should be fixed. the following patch to xfce4-help/info.c is a solution to the problem that sizes the help window to the maximum horizontal width that fits all of the text boxes (590 pixels) directly rather than using the automatic resize. --- info.c 2007-01-25 15:50:52.000000000 -0500 +++ info-new.c 2007-06-23 02:02:53.000000000 -0400 @@ -411,7 +411,7 @@ /* the notebook */ notebook = gtk_notebook_new (); gtk_widget_show (notebook); - gtk_widget_set_size_request (notebook, -1, 270); + gtk_widget_set_size_request (notebook, 590, 270); gtk_box_pack_start (GTK_BOX (vbox), notebook, TRUE, TRUE, 0); /* add pages */ [1] http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/2.0/windows.html#windows-show-hide Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce:
this is debian bug 430184 (http://bugs.debian.org/430184).
*** Bug 3899 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
I don't have an xfce4-help, but I have an xfce4-about that shows and then resizes. Also, when it decides to resize, the very least it could do was to resize itself to be large enough for its contents. It's about 3 pixels too narrow to show the Copyright tab without a horizontal scrollbar. I suggesting using automated word wrapping instead of predefined newlines.
This is kinda a "who cares?" issue to me, and is very hard to fix in practice because gtk doesn't (yet) have a notion of "natural sizing." Word wrapping is not a good idea because we want to maintain the standard formatting of the license.
yes, this is a rather minor issue, but its something that violates the gnome hig, and is rather annoying (at least to me). it is possible to solve the problem by sizing the horizontal width of the box to 590 pixels. seems pretty simple to me...
It's far from simple. What happens to people with larger or smaller font sizes than you have? "Fixing" this would mean calculating the width, in pixels, of each line, based on the current font size, finding the maximum length, then figuring out the width of scroll bars, any widget padding (varies by theme), dialog padding, etc, and *then* setting a minimum size. It's a horrible hack, and would make bringing the dialog up much slower (mainly due to the font metrics calculations).
> It's far from simple. i think it is fairly simple...i think people can live with side scrolling to view all the text (if the font size is large), but the show and resize needs to be eliminated, and that can be done by specifying a horizontal pixel width.
(In reply to comment #7) > > It's far from simple. > > i think it is fairly simple... Well, you're wrong. > i think people can live with side scrolling to > view all the text (if the font size is large), Sure, I'd agree with that. > but the show and resize needs to be eliminated, and that can be done by > specifying a horizontal pixel width. And what horizontal pixel width that makes sense on everyone's display at everyone's resolution at everyone's font size would you suggest? As I said, calculating a sane value is not simple.
> And what horizontal pixel width that makes sense on everyone's display at > everyone's resolution at everyone's font size would you suggest? As I said, > calculating a sane value is not simple. like i said, ignore the font size, people can use the horizontal scroll if they're using large fonts. i think you have to assume 640x480 is the minimum resolution used nowadays. so choose a value less than 640 that fits the text at its default font size reasonably. besides you've hard-coded the vertical size of xfce4-about to 270 pixels, why can't you do the same with the horizontal? as an aside, i've been meaning to report on the problems i've been having with xfce settings dialogs on my eeepc (which has a max res of 640x480). most of the dialogs assume a window height larger than 480, which makes a lot of stuff unusable. you aren't ahering to your own dogma there, why make a special case about it here?
(In reply to comment #9) > > And what horizontal pixel width that makes sense on everyone's display at > > everyone's resolution at everyone's font size would you suggest? As I said, > > calculating a sane value is not simple. > > like i said, ignore the font size, people can use the horizontal scroll if > they're using large fonts. i think you have to assume 640x480 is the minimum > resolution used nowadays. so choose a value less than 640 that fits the text > at its default font size reasonably. There is no default font size. > besides you've hard-coded the vertical size of xfce4-about to 270 pixels, why > can't you do the same with the horizontal? I didn't do that. I don't know who did, but I think that's semi-foolish. Vertical sizing for text is a lot easier to fudge, though, esp given that no one expects a decent-length document to fit on one 'screen' vertically. > as an aside, i've been meaning to report on the problems i've been having with > xfce settings dialogs on my eeepc (which has a max res of 640x480). Please open a new bug for that. This bug is for the about dialog. > most of > the dialogs assume a window height larger than 480, which makes a lot of stuff > unusable. We've talked about this a while ago... it might be possible to add scrolled windows to the dialogs so they can scroll, but dealing with screen heights less than 480 is a bit... retarded. > you aren't ahering to your own dogma there, why make a special case > about it here? Psh, don't give me this dogma crap. Either be useful, or don't post here at all.
> There is no default font size. so, choose something that is reasonable and size the box for that. 590 pixels works for me with 100 dpi Sans 9 fonts. > Psh, don't give me this dogma crap. Either be useful, or don't post here at > all. i am trying to be useful. inflamatory statements like this are not useful.
(In reply to comment #11) > > There is no default font size. > > so, choose something that is reasonable and size the box for that. 590 pixels > works for me with 100 dpi Sans 9 fonts. Sans 9? That's pretty small. And 'Sans' isn't useful -- that could be Arial, Helvetica, Bitstream Vera Sans, etc. They all have different metrics (in particular Vera is pretty wide on average compared to other sans-serif fonts). > > Psh, don't give me this dogma crap. Either be useful, or don't post here at > > all. > > i am trying to be useful. inflamatory statements like this are not useful. Sooo sorry I responded to your inflammatory statement with one of my own. Seriously, give it a rest.
> Sooo sorry I responded to your inflammatory statement with one of my own. > Seriously, give it a rest. my statement was not intended to be inflamatory. you misinterpreted it as such. i chose the term dogma because its definition is "a point of view or tenet put forth as authoritative without adequate grounds" [1]. the intent was to guide you into considering the fact that the evidence at hand contradicts your beliefs -- the xfce settings dialogs are statically sized, so why can't the same be done for the about dialog (at least until there is a better/autosizing solution)? like i've said many times, this is a very minor issue -- and certainly not worth getting into a heated argument over. however, it affects whether xfce looks polished and professional, and that is important. also consider that your actions and words on this bts very much affect xfce's image. since it is so easy to make the change, why not just do it? thank you for your consideration. [1] http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dogma
Fixed in git master.