RFC: Re-organising the Information tab in Subsurface

[Willem Ferguson]

Following previous discussion about this, I am posting a more formal 
request for comments. My proposal is to reorganise the items in the 
current Information tab as in the attached two images. There are two 
issues: 1) physical arrangement of data items on the tab; 2) the style 
used for presenting the re-organised data items.

*1) Physical arrangement of data items on the tab.*

Currently the presentation of the Information tab is highly inefficient, 
utilising large areas of screen space for relatively little information. 
In addition the data are currently presented in a rather unorganised 
way. The items are now organised under three headings: Dive, Gas and 
Environment and the presentation is more space-conscious. There are a 
few points worth noting:

a) The date and time of the dive is removed from the tab. This is 
because, when viewing the Information tab, the date and time of the dive 
is already highlighted on the dive list. It is not necessary to indicate 
dive identifiers (date,time) on any of the tabs because the tabs always 
represent aspects of the selected dive(s). Adding date and time also 
causes the Dive items not to fit in a single row any more.

b) For the moment, the dive mode is included in the Information tab. 
This follows previous discussions where a sentiment was expressed that 
dive mode is a technical aspect which does not really concern 
recreational divers that represent the majority of users of the 
software. I personally would love it to remain where it is on the Notes 
tab, but one may need to consider the overall utility of the software 
which may override personal preferences.

c) It is anticipated that, in future, more information will be included 
under the Environmental data in this tab, but that is not at stake at 
the moment.

*2) Style used for presenting data. *

1) Justification: The current headings are left-justified while the data 
are centred within each container. In some circumstances when the 
information tab is relatively wide, the data are therefore separated 
from the headings, making the display difficult to read (see the 
attached image "Present_setup"). I propose that the headings and data 
are aligned similarly. To illustrate these differences in the attached 
images, the top row shows left-justified headings and data, while the 
other rows have centred headings and data.

2) Heading colour: The headings are blue while the data are in black. 
This makes it easy to discern what is a heading and what is the 
associated datum.

3) Framing the boxes: In the attached image "Info2.jpg" each data item 
is framed in blue, the same colour as the heading. The rationale is 
that, for each box, the container is clearly separated from the 
information (in black) shown within the box. The attached image 
"Info1.jpg" does not have framing. However, in this case note that there 
is a problem with the background colour being split behind each heading. 
This is especially visible with darker background colours within each 
container.

Please comment!

Kind regards,

willem







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Please refer to 
http://upnet.up.ac.za/services/it/documentation/docs/004167.pdf 
<http://upnet.up.ac.za/services/it/documentation/docs/004167.pdf> for
full 
details.
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