User Interface of the X Configuration Tool

Sebastian Heinlein glatzor at ubuntu.com
Thu May 31 18:04:27 BST 2007


I made a new design that allows a much faster workflow:

http://glatzor.de/filesink/allinone.png

To make the space limitations more visible I made a screen shot of the
whole 640x480 desktop.

General:
* The new dialog only has got two tabs. One for the screens and one 
  for the graphics cards. This removes the need to switch to several
  to only setup a different second screen. Furthermore this gives as
  space to put extra options corresponding to the graphics card on
  the second tab (videoram, disable 3D or custom option)
(* On Xinerama setups we could try to guess the screens and to display
   an on screen label)
* Using Screen and Graphics (Preferences) as a name for the dialog would
  make the gfx card driver settings easier to find
* The first tab now uses a singular as label, since the
  configuration options on the left side only affect one/the selected
  screen
* Hiding multiple the screens widgets would still scale down the dialog
  well for single screen setups

Screen Selector (left side of the first tab):
* In the selector the screens are only listed by their output number
  and short information (default or disabled). This gives us more
  space for the options on the right side.
* The monitors of different cards will be separated by a separator
* Sexy-Python could be used to put extra information about the screen 
  on a tooltip
* The icon in the selector will be shaded if the screen is currently not
  used (disabled)
* Disabled rules hint to reduce visual noise

Screen Options (right side of the first tab):
* The options are separated into three groups that are separated by a
  larger white space: device settings, default screen, secondary
  screen
* Orientation support was dropped, since XRandR tends to break
  Xinerama setups and their is no store/restore infrastructure currently
  for this option. As a side note: instant apply of resolution changes
  is now also disabled on dual screen layouts.
* The make default button and the secondary screen controls are disabled
  for the default screen
* The device/model chooser is now also left aligned

What do you think about this?

Cheers,

Sebastian




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