ideas for tasks before christmas

[Dirk Hohndel]

On Tue, 2013-12-03 at 23:59 +0200, Lubomir I. Ivanov wrote:
> On 3 December 2013 23:30, Dirk Hohndel <dirk at hohndel.org> wrote:
> > On Tue, 2013-12-03 at 23:21 +0200, Lubomir I. Ivanov wrote:
> >> On 3 December 2013 22:49, Dirk Hohndel <dirk at hohndel.org> wrote:
> >> > A) printing. printing. printing.
> >> >
> >> > There are so many ways to make this better.
> >> > End goal would be something with templates, but if you could just
> >> > something where for the 6up print the relative height of text and
> >> > profile can be modified within reason. The profile is cool and
> >> > everything, but most people will want to be able to make it small enough
> >> > to have all of the notes printed...
> >> >
> >>
> >> this is quite hard at the moment and the main fault is exposure to
> >> high level interfaces (e.g. in Qt and lack of templates).
> >> we can enable proportional sizing of profile against table, but that
> >> will not solve things much as we still have to estimate a number of
> >> rows for the table.
> >> honestly, the current table height is quite optimal for the 6print as
> >> getting a row any smaller or the font any smaller breaks the text
> >> visual!
> >
> > So right now we have 1/6th of the page and that gives us a fixed height.
> > Can't we change the percentage of that height that is available for the
> > profile vs. table (including notes)?
> >
> 
> from my understanding we have to estimate the percentage height and if
> say the ratio was 200px for profile and 120px for table we have to fit
> N columns, where a minimal height for a row is 12px, it means we can
> only fit 10 rows, as the minimal row height is 12px - so "where would
> the notes go" is the question. we already have a row minimum so this
> is a bit tricky. in that row height we can fit safely a pixel height
> font which is 9 pixels and looks OK on linux and win32 (tested),
> without cutting out characters such as 'g' which have a under-tail
> bellow the base line.
> 
> i can try making this work but i'm a bit concerned as currently the
> font size in the profile starts to stack (overlaps) in the 1/6 print
> and values are quite difficult to read out there.

Agreed. There is no solution for 'infinite' length notes. But for
example, I would love to spend a little less on the profile to get two
more lines of notes when printed... that was the kind of thing I thought
of. So something that says "show less profile, more notes" :-)

> from my POV, given the profile and table data on an A4 in a 1/6 print
> (as this is the format i'm basing my work on) does not look that great
> - a bit stacked with not much space for variations.

But you can make the profile smaller. That's my point.

> > Which reminds me.
> >
> > Make item (A-1) please "add progress bar to print rendering". Right now
> > it looks like the application is hung while you prepare to print all
> > dives (assuming you have a few hundred dives).
> >
> > BTW, do you have a decently sized XML file to play with? I'll be happy
> > to share my XML file if that would help. That will give you an idea
> > regarding the notes issue, too.
> >
> 
> my machine is an i3 and slow in processing all the test dives already,
> but i'm guessing we may have to move the layout calculations in a new
> thread while updating the main thread (UI), with the progress bar
> active while locking the UI for interaction, perhaps only leaving a
> cancel button there.
> i see this a definite improvement and i may work on that!

Thanks

> but tomaz pointed out that we may take a KDE (or something) print
> dialog and modify it, in which area i'm a bit lost.
> if we make a custom dialog then we can perhaps base such a work on it!

That's definitely post 4.0

> >> > C) turn the profile preparation calculation into a two pass thing
> >> >
> >> > i.e., first calculate JUST the profile, tank pressure, partial pressures
> >> > (and allow the drawing to start once that is done), then do all the
> >> > other calculations (deco, TTS, etc)
> >> >
> >> > That last one will need some coordination with Tomaz who wants to
> >> > reimplement the profile stuff, anyway
> >> >
> >>
> >> i will have to investigate into that, since when i see deco and tank
> >> pressure i slightly "scatter".
> >> if i see tomaz making initial commits on this one, i can perhaps take
> >> over to make the final implementation.
> >> the drawing itself in Qt is not of much concern for me; what has to be
> >> drawn in terms of diving date is mostly issue. :(
> >
> > Well, I don't think you really need to understand the dive aspects of
> > what "deco" or "tts" mean in order to put that in a separate thread and
> > have the UI provide no data until that thread has finished...
> >
> > Let's discuss this with Tomaz and see what he thinks. Maybe we should
> > wait until after 4.0.
> >
> > Which means you are stuck with just the printing ideas :-/
> >
> 
> i can still help, but first i must understand the requirement.
> ...and will try to do so.

No worries. Print and possibly the webservice thing are both much more
urgent.

/D