RFC: Print templates for 4 dives per page and 6 dives per page

[Lubomir I. Ivanov]

hi, Willem.

On 25 November 2017 at 15:10, Willem Ferguson
<willemferguson at zoology.up.ac.za> wrote:
> I attach two images for some print templates that I have been working with.
> I would appreciate comments from any members of this list, but especially
> from anyone who prints dives to paper.
>

i wonder if the user forum (google groups) would provide more
feedback, as we've seen more printing questions there.
given we know have "the power" to maintain the bundled templates
(thanks to your suggestions) maybe we can add / update more templates
if users like them.

> My point of departure with this work is to accommodate divers why frequently
> print dives. Three points: 1) The biggest limitation is that all dive
> details (i.e. those shown on the Notes, Equipment and Information tabs in
> Subsurface) cannot be fitted onto a single sheet of paper. Therefore I
> assume that those who print dives are more likely to be those who dive in a
> recreational environment and configuration.
> Such divers have fewer demands
> from a printout, compared to technical/sidemount/rebreather divers. These
> print layouts are therefore geared towards recreational divers. 2) I used
> "conventional" recreational dive log sheets available on the Internet to
> determine what information is more likely to be relevant to a recreational
> diver. 3) Though I have not been totally consistent, I assumed that the
> information showed in the multiple-dives-per-page layouts should not show
> information different from the one-dive-per-page layout. If space is
> limiting, a subset of information on the one-page layout should be shown on
> the layouts with less page space for each dive. Any comments on these points
> of departure?

when Gehad was working on this, he encountered a bit of a blocker,
such as, that you cannot easily have a dive with both a profile
picture and wrapped notes on multiple pages.
thus, he added the FlowLayout template and it's handled differently in C++.

this way, one can potentially make two print jobs:
1) print all selected dives with profiles and some basic info
2) print a second job using the flow layout that can expand on larger
fields such as notes.

then the user should simply combine the papers from the 2 print jobs.
not ideal, but i don't think we would get this to work in time soon
unless we find a JS / HTML / QtWebkit guru, or spend a lot of time
figuring out why this is such a blocker.

>
> 6 dives: On the left is the current default layout. Biggest issue is that
> the notes are mostly not shown or severely truncated. It is futile to
> include the Notes in the 6-dive layout. A lot of information is shown here,
> which are not shown in the one-page print layout (e.g. SAC rate, rating,
> tags). In putting together a 6-dive layout, I decided to split the templates
> into two: 1) a template that does not show the notes; 2) a template that
> does not show the dive profile. This gives a diver a choice to print
> whatever is more important for her/him. In these two derived templates, I
> re-arranged the layout compared to the current template. Note that in all
> 6-dive layouts, the depth and time labels on the dive profile are for all
> practical purposes illegible, and I suspect this is a problem that is not
> easily solved. Note:
>
> 1) The gas information on my two templates are truncated if more than one
> cylinder is used on a dive. The gas information in my templates are rather
> cryptic, giving cylinder type, gas type and begin/end cylinder pressure. In
> the existing 6-dive layout (leftmost in image) there is more information
> given for gas, but this comes with a penalty in other aspects of the page
> layout.
>
> 2) In the proposed 6-dive layout with dive notes (i.e. without dive
> profile), the dive notes are truncated if there are too many notes. I often
> write fairly lengthy dive notes, so in the multiple-diives-per-page
> printouts, my notes are commonly truncated.

i don't see how a good length of notes would fit on an A4 with 6 dives.
probably the notes should be even removed from the stock 6 dives template?

>
> 4 dives: We currently do not have a 4-dive template. My rationale was that
> if someone wanted a several dives per page and also both the dive profile
> and the dive notes,  a 4-dive layout is the more viable than the 6-dive
> layout.  Here also, if the dive notes are long, they are truncated. This
> layout is a compromise to show more or less all the information originally
> intended with the 6-dive layout.

i think we used to have a 4 dive template in the GTK days.
i haven't looked at the source yet, but either way this seems like a
good addition.

>
> Any comments are highly appreciated. If these layout are perceived as
> useful, I will circulate the templates so that you can test them on your own
> dive log. After that we can decide in which way they will be added to the
> current set of templates.
>

as mentioned, maybe cross-posting on the forums would give more
feedback from actual users.
i can then do a fairly quickly code review / changes on these.

thanks
lubomir
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