kicad-developers team mailing list archive

["gharlandau" <gharlandau@...>]

> Hello!
> 
> The problems of KiCad dialogs is the
> 1. Fixed positions and dimensions of elements. When I try to
> translate interface to russian, then some parts of text become not
> visible.
> 2. Strange placement of buttons in some dialogs.
> 3. Some dialogs don't have default buttons.
> 
> <snip>
> 
> In some commits I saw the ugly attempts to avoid the problems with
> strings length by usage of resizeable window of dialogs.
> But, if "Sizer" will be used, then resizeable attribute does not
> required for window.
> 
> --
> Igor Plyatov

Hello Igor,

I have been fine-tuning various dialog boxes in recent times, so I am 
picking that I am one of the people that you have directed your 
recent message to.

I am definitely not hostile to your request to provide sizers within 
every dialog. However many of the dialogs which I have fine-tuned in 
recent times did not use sizers before I started editing them, so yet 
more of my time would have been required to have also provided sizers 
at the same time.

Another complication is that DialogBlocks supports no more than 30 
controls within a dialog unless the unrestricted version has been 
purchased. (And although it is not unduly expensive, I am still not 
currently in a position to purchase that version.) It is not 
obligatory to use DialogBlocks to design dialogs - but it is still 
preferable, as it provides instant feedback on what a dialog will 
look like after being invoked, or while it is being resized.

Having said all that, I still appreciate that there are various 
dialogs which could be better implemented. So as time permits, I will 
provide sizers within dialogs which don't currently use them. And I 
will also review where various buttons have been placed.

However I do concur with Dick about dialogs being resizable. I had 
not previously been aware that it is customary within Linux for 
dialogs to be resizable, but Dick has still managed to provide a 
means by which dialogs default to being resizable in the Linux 
version of KiCad, and to not being resizable in the Windows and Mac 
versions. And in more recent times I have figured out how to specify 
the associated MAYBE_RESIZE_BORDER field within .pjd files (used by 
DialogBlocks) as well, so as time permits, I will also be committing 
updated versions of those files, in which that field will be 
specified.

Thank you for your feedback about the dialogs. I am just as 
interested as you are in making KiCad as good an application as 
possible.

Regards,
Geoff Harland.