New gadget style for Custom Element - Change

Zomis · Post by **Zomis** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:43 pm

Considering the answer on these two related subjects:
viewtopic.php?t=1125
viewtopic.php?t=1127

I now wonder if it would be possible to change the gadget style, to some kind of dynamic style, so that gadgets appear and disappear considering if they are currently used or not.

For example, "at <side> side" is needed when using "touched by player", but not "change by page of". So if it's not used, then hide it.
And "page: <page>" is only used with "change by page of", so why not hide it otherwise?

I think this change (or another style of change - come with suggestions if you have!) would be good for Rocks'n'Diamonds for mainly two reasons:
1. It would simplify the interface of complex custom element creation, and so new Rocks'n'Diamonds users would learn CE-creation faster and easier.
2. It would give space for more gadgets, which could be showed when they're needed

Post by **Holger** » Mon Feb 19, 2007 6:59 pm

Very good point! This could indeed clean up the CE properties pages!

I already considered this option once, but did not implement it, because it would need partial (de)activating of gadgets (therefore making things a bit more complicated).

But you're perfectly right! This could indeed help making things easier to understand for new users (and giving more options to advanced users due to added space for new gadgets)! :-)

I'll try to add this soon, ad the lack of space on that screen is really bad! :-)

Tomi · Post by **Tomi** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 2:28 pm

Already said this on viewtopic.php?t=1127, but I'll repeat it for completeness: what about simply using a scrollbar?

Post by **Holger** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 8:29 pm

Yes, using a scrollbar is maybe an even better solution, as it would completely remove the limitations that could only partly be removed by context-sensitive gadgets. (Besides that, it's still not clear for me if context-sensitive gadgets would be more confusing or displaying gadgets that only make sense in certain context. Oh, well... :-) )

Zomis · Post by **Zomis** » Sat Mar 03, 2007 10:03 pm

Holger wrote:Yes, using a scrollbar is maybe an even better solution, as it would completely remove the limitations that could only partly be removed by context-sensitive gadgets. (Besides that, it's still not clear for me if context-sensitive gadgets would be more confusing or displaying gadgets that only make sense in certain context. Oh, well... )

Then how about using a scrollbar and somehow disabling (greying out) gadgets which shouldn't be used.

But I don't think hiding gadgets when they are unused would hurt. I think that's the best thing to do. But of course, a scrollbar would also be nice