RFC: Re-organising the Information tab in Subsurface

[Hartley Horwitz]

From: Willem Ferguson <willemferguson at zoology.up.ac.za>

> To: Subsurface Mailing List <subsurface at subsurface-divelog.org>
> Cc:
> Bcc:
> Date: Mon, 29 Jul 2019 08:35:14 +0200
> Subject: RFC: Re-organising the Information tab in Subsurface
>
> 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.*
>
> …….
>
> 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.
>
[HH]  I'm ok with that change.  It didn't bother me to have the date/time
repeated, but in the interest of space, removing it seems to make sense.

> 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.
>
[HH] I prefer the centred justification, but there's some inconsistencies.
Fields like Air Temp and Water temp have the data left justified with the
title centred.  I'm assuming that can be fixed and the inconsistency was
just due to this being a trial balloon.

> 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.
>
[HH] I like the two colour approach.

> 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.
>

[HH] I find the blue box outline overkill and distracting.  I prefer Info1.

> Please comment!
>
> Kind regards,
>
> willem
>
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