[news.eclipse.tools.gef] Re: thinner palette UI when docked

[Al Major <alnospammajor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Yes.  Mark it as an enhancement.  This won't be a priority, and we might not
> even address anything (except maybe the thinner collapsed flyout).
> PaletteView is also beneficial for really large palettes (hundreds of
> items), and some clients use it exclusively (i.e., no flyout in the editor
> if the view is not there).  The real estate gain from making the flyout
> shorter is not going to be much (esp. if we make it narrower), and I don't
> think it's best in terms of usability (do you know of any other program that
> does the same?).

	interesting. i've never even thought about a palette with hundreds of 
items.

	i've not seen any programs do this with a palette. i have seen it used 
to hide an edit toolbar (which served the same purpose as the palette). 
i can't recall exactly which program it was (it was some kind of stock 
market application), but i do remember being generally impressed by the 
amount of thought that had gone into their UI design. from what i 
recall, there actually was a usability issue, because i didn't find the 
toolbar right away. but once i knew it was there, it was easy to find 
again. so the usability is an issue only for a beginning user, but the 
benefits accrue to the power user.

	the real-estate gain doesn't seem like much, but every little bit helps 
with the power user.

regards,

al