RFC: Re-organising the Information tab in Subsurface

[Dean Murray]

As for the layout, is there some way it could be user defined. Ie
parameterised and then the user decides what goes where. Either some config
file, or UI to select. This way we can define the most common layout, but
advanced users can customise

Regarding the colour coding of the text I somehow really like the idea even
though I never found it to be confusing. It makes me think of this
technique that the accountants use to structure their spreadsheets

https://www.wallstreetprep.com/knowledge/financial-modeling-best-practices-and-conventions/#Formatting


They for example use blue text for values that are to be entered by the
user, black is a calculated value, green is a value coming from another
sheet/tab etc.

This could be nice in the world of subsurface where we have numbers that
are

* manually entered by user
* given to us from the dive computer
* calculated by subsurface.

It could provide clarity, but then again maybe its just confusing for most
users. It would take a lot of work to be consistent in this across the
whole program. Also some fields may be the data can come from the computer
(which might for example show in green) and same field could be overwritten
by user to hardcode some other number and you would need to keep track of
this and change it to blue.

I guess it is a massive tangent to the original request, but something
that  came to mind and maybe provide some inspiration.

Regards
Dean

On Wed, 31 Jul. 2019, 4:34 am Pedro Neves, <nevesdiver at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi all:
>
> First of, thank you Willem for the time you took to think about these
> changes
>
> On 29/07/19 07:35, Willem Ferguson wrote:
>
>
> *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:
>
> I like the new arrangement better.
>
> a) I don't like losing the date and time (as sometimes I use the
> Information tab to copy all the info to other places), but I understand the
> rationale behind it - so no opposition on my end...
>
> b) I don't have many dives using dive modes other that OC so I could ditch
> that info. But I know other users have, so I think it should stay on the
> Dive heading, unless a more important data comes up to take that place...
>
>
> *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.
>
> I agree that the justification should be the same for the headings and the
> data. I personally prefer having all items centred, but...
>
>
> 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.
>
> Agree...
>
> 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.
>
> I prefer having the boxes framed. Willem's rationale makes sense to me.
>
>
> All the best:
>
> Pedro
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