[8.0ß19] Graphical glitches in TC

[umbra]

There are several small graphical glitches all over TC. In general, TCx64 looks more native than TCx32. But many bugs are in all current versions (7.57a, 8.0x32 and 8.0x64) so if not stated otherwise, the mentioned issues apply to all these versions. Instead of flooding the forum I put all of them here (or at least what I could find). Tested on Win7 with Aero enabled.

So far I have found these:

General issues
0.A TC is using ScrollBars instead of Spinners. It looks weird. (see 1.C)

0.B Every single dialog has a different style, margins or spacing between its controls.

0.C Some Buttons work like SplitButtons, yet their appearance doesn't indicate it.

0.D TC often uses ContextMenus with enabled icons even when there are no icons to show (see 8.B).

0.E All UI controls have a fixed size. When user chooses to use a bigger font, texts won't fit in their controls anymore.

0.F Each dialog has a different casing of its title (e.g. "Find Files" and "Change button bar").

0.G TC often uses Labels with 3D border instead of disabled TextBoxes. (see 1.D)

0.H Some dialogs are resizable and some (like Edit comment or Associate) are not.

0.I Many resizable dialogs have no minimum dimensions (see 8.A, 10.A or 11.A)

0.J Many modal dialogs have an application icon in 8.0x64 but not in 8.0x32 or 7.57a.

Find Files dialog
Image: http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/TC/bugs/cutoffcontrols.jpg
Image: http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/TC/bugs/spinners.jpg
Image: http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/TC/bugs/label.jpg

1.A ComboBox and "UTF8" label are not aligned with other controls.

1.B Dialog's minimum size is too small. (7.57a, 8.0x32)

1.C ScrollBars are just weird.

1.D Label with 3D border is not visible very well. Also its color suggest that the text can be edited. I would suggest to use a disabled TextBox instead, like you do in some other dialogs. (problem in 8.0x64, may be applicable to 7.57a, 8.0x32)

1.E "ASCII", "Unicode" and "UTF8" are mutually exclusive options, yet they are represented by CheckBoxes and scattered. Plus the ANSI option (default) is not visible at all.

Multi-Rename Tool
Image: http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/TC/bugs/multirename.png

2.A No space between controls (caused by a fact, that rows in "Search & Replace" section are not aligned with rows from other sections).

2.B (fixed) When you open the dialog for the first time (with clean ini), there is a gap between the ComboBox and its GroupBox. When you resize the dialog, the gap will disappear. (7.57a, 8.0x32)

2.C Why is a help button hidden in the middle of unrelated buttons?

2.D (fixed) When you open the dialog for the first time (with clean ini), there is a gap between the TextBoxes and their GroupBox. When you resize the dialog, the gap will disappear. (8.0x32)

Create CRC-checksum file
Image: http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/TC/bugs/crc.jpg

3.A Its title is a little bit misleading. User can choose other types of checksums.

3.B There are two exclusive CheckBoxes - its unintuitive and visually it does not present user with all options (CRC is missing). ComboBox would be better.

Choose command
Image: http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/TC/bugs/command.jpg

4.A The ListBox is not wide enough.

4.B The minimize button makes no sense since it's a modal dialog.

Change start menu
Image: http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/TC/bugs/startmenu.jpg

5.A The dialog has no minimum size.

5.B The "Start menu:" Label should be moved down by a few pixels. And Buttons on the right should be moved up to align with ListBox.

5.C Labels are not aligned (the second one is off by one pixel).

5.D The default size of this window is huge. (7.57a, 8.0x32)

Change button bar
Image: http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/TC/bugs/buttonbar.jpg

6.A Why do these TextBoxes have different sizes? They both contain the same type of values. Also I kind of miss a unit (px) behind those TextBoxes.

6.B This Label has different border than other TextBoxes in this Dialog. A disabled TextBox would look better.

Options
Image: http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/TC/bugs/optionslanguage.jpg
Image: http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/TC/bugs/optionscolor.jpg

7.A Usually the Button is aligned with its TextBox but sometimes it's a few pixels off (up/down) or has a different size than in other dialogs.

7.B Text in this disabled ComboBox retains its active color.

7.D There is an icon in TCx64 but not in TCx32. (8.0x64)

Custom Columns
Image: http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/TC/bugs/columns.jpg

8.A Dialog has no minimum height.

8.B There is no need for icons in that context menu.

8.C "nr" is not very common. "number" or "#" might be better. Besides, there is a lot of space.

Change directory menu
See 5.A and 5.B.

Compare contents
10.A The dialog has no minimum height. Also the 64b and the 32b versions have different minimal width.

Lister
11.A The dialog has no minimum height.

BTM
Image: http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/TC/bugs/btm-colon.jpg

12.A Redundant colon (plus the title says "Rename/Move:" while in the list there is just "move:")

12.B Missing space between operation and path. It's hard to read.


EDIT 22. 6. 2012:
Added more bugs and removed those that had been fixed in TC8.0 final (or before). Added 0.J and 2.D.

EDIT 7. 7. 2012:
Removed 2.B and 2.D (fixed in TC 8.01 rc2).

BTW, if I wanted to redesign something, it would be the Background Transfer Manager.
http://s1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/TC/mockups/

[petermad]

Image: http://i1057.photobucket.com/albums/t399/uumbra8/optionscombo.jpg

7.A Two different types of ComboBox. Again quite common.

Here there is a reason for two types: You can write your own custom size in the first one, but not in the second one.

[umbra]

2petermad
Looks like you're right. I didn't notice that because one cannot write in other similar ComboBoxes in Options.

[ghisler(Author)]

I'm sorry but most of your points are not valid:

> 1.A ComboBox and "UTF8" label are not aligned with other controls.
"all (unlimited depth)" has fixed width, so it's normal - just make the window extra wide to see what I mean!

> 1.B Dialog's minimum size is too small. (7.56a, 8.0x32)

It needs to be for small resolution screens.

> 1.C Spinners (or ScrollBars?) have different width and height. And they look weird. Maybe you could replace those TextBoxes and Spinners with something like NumericUpDown.

These are just scrollbars. Spin controls are not available on all supported platforms.

> 1.D Label with 3D border is not visible very well. Also its color suggest that the text can be edited. I would suggest to use a disabled TextBox instead, like you do in some other dialogs. (problem in 8.0x64, may be applicable to 7.56a, 8.0x32)

These use the standard Windows colors.

etc.

I'm sorry, I just don't have the patience nor the time to describe it for the rest too...

[JohnFredC]

Unfortunately, when I see these things in TC (and they are everywhere) I wonder what newbies think.

Certainly the aesthetics of the UI are secondary for a tool like TC. But obvious (if little) issues with control alignment, control anchoring, inconsistency/arbitrariness in dialog design and the other lacunae in TC's presentation do at least suggest the possibility of a lack of attention to detail elsewhere in the tool.

Now, I know from many years of experience that the somewhat after-thought approach to TC visual design does not reflect a similar attitude toward its functionality!

But the (mis-)perception is "out there" that TC is somewhat clunky to use, and I suggest that a user's subliminal reaction to "untidiness" in TC's visual design may contribute to that view.

It certainly couldn't hurt sales if TC was a bit more "beautiful" with regard to tooling... starting especially with the sorts of things listed in umbra's post.

They drive me crazy when I notice them.

[umbra]

"all (unlimited depth)" has fixed width, so it's normal - just make the window extra wide to see what I mean!

I know that. What I meant was that you could make the minimal width of that dialog a little bit larger, so it would align with other controls. But this is one of the least important things in the list.

It needs to be for small resolution screens.

Then you should fix the x64 version because it's a bit larger - large enough to not cut off those controls.

Spin controls are not available on all supported platforms.

On what platforms are they not available? I'm pretty sure I've seen them in Win98.

These use the standard Windows colors.

Standard colors? Yes. But what I was saying is that you should use disabled TexBox instead of Label. It looks more natural, doesn't have border issues, you can allow users to select and copy its content, ... In general Labels are for labeling/introducing the data while TextBoxes are used to show/manipulate the data.

Right now every single dialog has a different style, margins or spacing between its controls. Options dialog is crowded (especially the Operation page) and it takes an eternity to find something in it. And a whole program is a hybrid that tries to look like a native Windows app, but it doesn't. Yes, it does not affect its functionality, but it makes a bad impression.

At first I wanted to suggest a few improvements to GUI. However since it is a known fact that you are very reluctant to such changes, I though I would have a greater chance in pointing out some glitches in the current design. I guess I was wrong. So today I'll update my first post one last time.

I hope I didn't offend you in any way. And if yes, I apologize for it. TC is great and extremely useful program. But paying some attention to its design wouldn't do any harm.

[umbra]

I've updated the first post. There are some new glitches but some of the old ones have been fixed in the TC8.0 beta 20 (thanks!) so I removed those.

[ghisler(Author)]

I have changed those which I thought made sense, but I cannot change things like the spinners, sorry. This would be a major feature change, which I don't want to introduce this late in the beta test. Also the context menu look is like that in both Delphi and Lazarus. There is nothing I can do to change that.

That's the reason why I moved this thread to "Will not be changed", sorry.

0.E All UI controls have a fixed size. When user chooses to use a bigger font, texts won't fit in their controls anymore.

You cannot change the dialogs with the font size in Delphi. But you can use
OverrideDpi=150
or so in wincmd.ini to scale the dialogs.

[Sob]

About menus (8.B), themed ones have always space for icons (or checkboxes/radios).

Another thing is how menus are handled in Lazarus, it's... erm... not very good. All menus are always owner-drawn, even if not needed and sometimes the drawing is quite wrong, especially with Classic menus. IMHO it would be best to ditch Lazarus menus and write some own simple wrapper for Windows API functions. Only exception where owner-drawing is needed, is TC main menu in Classic mode with icons.

But I understand that author has more important things to do now than play with such details. But it might be good idea for the future, when TC 8.0 final is released, to dedicate a week or two to fix all different visual details, make themes support 100%, etc.. Make some "TC 8.1 beautification edition". :)

[umbra]

I understand that. These issues have been slowly accumulating for some time now and no one expects you to fix them all and immediately.

You cannot change the dialogs with the font size in Delphi. But you can use OverrideDpi=150 or so in wincmd.ini to scale the dialogs.

That's a pitty. And I alway forget about OverrideDpi because it's not even a documented setting. Why not add it to the Options right under the font settings?

[ghisler(Author)]

I tried adding it, but it was causing too many problems (e.g. with already open dialogs). Therefore a restart of TC is needed.