StatusBar

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We need to expand the use of the status bar to make it more useful and informative. Ideas:

• (DONE) In node edit, it should display "X of Y nodes selected"; if only one node is selected, it adds its type (cusp, smooth, etc.)

• In selector and node edit, if there are more than one object/node selected but all selected objects/nodes are of the same type, it must display that type; e.g. "5 rectangles" instead of "5 objects" and "5 of 10 nodes selected; all smooth" instead of just "5 of 10 nodes selected".

• (DONE) Warnings and errors that could make sense for the end user (but are not so important as to warrant a modal messagebox) must be put into the status bar. An example is "Non-printable character" warning in text tool. Another example is the failure to perform an action such as the one described in bug 843373.

• (DONE) Any complex or non-trivial actions must use the status bar to provide details or indicate success. An example is the Unicode mode in text editor.

• If the document has been modified from its saved state, this should be shown

Isn't it standard to indicate that by adding * to the window title? --bb

• (DONE for tools) Any currently active 'modes' should be indicated

• (DONE, timeouts are implemented) We should consider exposing a slightly richer interface for setting the status bar contents (possibly exposing the GTK status bar push/pop metaphor?)
  • What might be the advantages of push/pop compared to the current "always overwrite"? --bb
  • Instead, I think about a function for temporary display: you say e.g. statusbar_display_timed("Message", 4); and the message is shown but disappears after 4 seconds (if it's still there, i.e. not replaced by any other message). This is useful for information which may be helpful but will annoy if displayed forever. --bb

• Please add more ideas for where status bar display would be appropriate.

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Only one comment, we need to make sure that errors that happen in documents that are not in focus, stay with that status bar. So something like a filter warning would be posted to the window that it's running on - not the one your currently working on. --Ted

This is taken care of by the signals; just provide the correct SPView in the function calls and it will update its statusbar. --bb