[PATCH] Draft/preview background is too interfering

[mrelbe <mikael@…>]

The background of the draft view (preview) is too interfering I think, and I therefore propose a subtle change to it:

• Make the preview background color a little bit whiter
• Make the background "draft" image label a little bit brighter

The proposed change is very subtle, but appears significantly less interfering on my calibrated screen.

Patches

• draft.png​ — Modified background image for replacement of trunk/trac/htdocs/draft.png​
• css.diff​ — Patched CSS files

Example

• Current preview​
• Proposed preview​

[Remy Blank]

For direct comparison, the current preview:

And the proposed change:

I also find the proposed preview better. Opinions?

[mrelbe <mikael@…>]

No objections, this change is as simple as it gets. Proposing 0.12

[Christian Boos]

Perhaps something in between. While on my current screen this new version looks good, yesterday I've seen it on a screen where the non-white background and the draft letters were almost unnoticeable.

In fact, the proposed preview also contains a change to the draft.png picture which is not in the patch (the change of color of the patch letters). So maybe just making the background lighter from #f4f4f4 to #f8f8f8 would be enough, leaving the draft.png as it is.

[mrelbe <mikael@…>]

The proposal includes a new draft.png​ (is it possible to include binary files in a patch file?).

I was afraid that the new preview would seem too bright on some screens, I am sure it's a valid point.

Would it be possible to let the user select the preview background?

Or may I propose to drop the "Draft" letters and keep the darkened background (or make it "blueish" or similar)? The annoyance — to me — is really the draft letters…

[anonymous]

This is what I call "wasted time" in such complex projects. Please, don't discuss this further, there's no use in it. Change it as proposed and that person will be happy. Then move on with the real bugs… ;-)

[Christian Boos]

Replying to anonymous:

This is what I call "wasted time" in such complex projects. Please, don't discuss this further, there's no use in it. Change it as proposed and that person will be happy. Then move on with the real bugs… ;-)

Call it whatever you want, but I call this attention to detail, and I'd argue this is one quality of the project… Now, no offense, but answering to such comments from anonymous contributors is what I would call wasted time. Please either contribute yourself in some constructive way or stop making fruitless suggestions.

[Christian Boos]

Replying to mrelbe <mikael@…>:

The proposal includes a new draft.png​ (is it possible to include binary files in a patch file?).

Stupid me, I was focusing on the patch, not even seeing you provided the new draft.png ;-) And yes, if you were using git or Mercurial with the [diff] git = True setting, you could create diffs for binaries that can be used by either of these tools.

I was afraid that the new preview would seem too bright on some screens, I am sure it's a valid point.

Would it be possible to let the user select the preview background?

Too complex for the benefit, IMO.

Or may I propose to drop the "Draft" letters and keep the darkened background (or make it "blueish" or similar)? The annoyance — to me — is really the draft letters…

Ah, but for me the annoyance was the darkened background ;-) Again, maybe we can come up with something in between (pick the color in between, from your proposal and the current one).

[anonymous]

Replying to cboos:

Replying to anonymous:

This is what I call "wasted time" in such complex projects. Please, don't discuss this further, there's no use in it. Change it as proposed and that person will be happy. Then move on with the real bugs… ;-)

Call it whatever you want, but I call this attention to detail, and I'd argue this is one quality of the project… Now, no offense, but answering to such comments from anonymous contributors is what I would call wasted time. Please either contribute yourself in some constructive way or stop making fruitless suggestions.

For instance, in my opinion the original value was the best, the new background tends to be overlooked. The known effect with GUI settings is, there will always be people disliking the current setting and only a extensive polling would tell what the mean value of subjective sensation is. My constructive advice just is to not serve single opinions in a time-consuming way but to act pragmatically and set a fixed value, and rather spend time in giving a general 'appearance settings' in a next version. My name would change a thing, and I understand I'm sounding offensive but, sorry, I don't want to sound that way, I highly appreciate your project… but I've just read the comment about #2456 on page SeaChange/WhatDevelopersWant and I think somehow it's reasoned in tickets like this here.

[Christian Boos]

Replying to anonymous:

For instance, in my opinion the original value was the best, the new background tends to be overlooked. The known effect with GUI settings is, there will always be people disliking the current setting and only a extensive polling would tell what the mean value of subjective sensation is.

True, but in this case, the issue raised here Draft/preview background is too interfering did ring a bell, and the same goes for Remy as he stated in comment:1.

My constructive advice just is to not serve single opinions in a time-consuming way but to act pragmatically and set a fixed value,

I would have happily applied the proposed change, if I would have used my regular screens on which the change is fine. Unfortunately, I happened to see it first on a screen where it was far too bright, so I know we can't make the change exactly as proposed.

and rather spend time in giving a general 'appearance settings' in a next version.

Maybe, but that could as well never happen… patches welcomed.

My name would change a thing, and I understand I'm sounding offensive but, sorry, I don't want to sound that way, I highly appreciate your project… but I've just read the comment about #2456 on page SeaChange/WhatDevelopersWant and I think somehow it's reasoned in tickets like this here.

No worries, I was the one sounding offensive, I suppose ;-)

[OT] As for #2456, the situation is not exactly the same. Here we're discussing an issue, minor I concede, but with a clear goal and scope from the reporter and a motivation from someone on the team (me in this case). Both things #2456 are lacking so far.

Sometimes you spend a lot of time improving a little detail (and CSS tweaks are especially good for that, real time sinks ;-) ), but if you don't take the time to do it correctly (for a subjective definition of correct anyway), it's like you did nothing, you're not closer to the goal you have in mind. Even more so if you just apply proposed changes to get rid of them and "make someone happy", you'd just side-track. We could leave the css issues aside, but sometimes we need to improve things on that front as well, and when someone proposes a patch, it's a good excuse to try to get one step further. Hope this clarifies a bit the development process, which is of course itself highly dependent on the developers involved. So if you want to be part of it and focus exclusively on the real bugs, you'd be very welcomed to do so!

[mrelbe <mikael@…>]

Replying to anonymous:

This is what I call "wasted time" in such complex projects.

Sorry to say, but sometimes packaging is more important than content. This is typically overseen by software developers. Microsoft has developed a tremendous understanding for this which might explain their success. Polishing, even so subtle, can actually increase perceived quality.

Then move on with the real bugs… ;-)

I hope you mean real development :)

Anyway, Trac is all about great content!

[Carsten Klein <carsten.klein@…>]

With CSS, genshi and everything, shouldn't it be possible for the original poster changing the appearance of the draft preview without actually patching trac?

[mrelbe <mikael@…>]

Replying to Carsten Klein <carsten.klein@…>:

With CSS, genshi and everything, shouldn't it be possible for the original poster changing the appearance of the draft preview without actually patching trac?

You are correct, but I was thinking the change could be made once and for all…

[Christian Boos]

Replying to mrelbe <mikael@…>:

Replying to Carsten Klein <carsten.klein@…>:

With CSS, genshi and everything, shouldn't it be possible for the original poster changing the appearance of the draft preview without actually patching trac?

You are correct, but I was thinking the change could be made once and for all…

This is the case, as I've stated a few times above, but it must have been lost in the noise ;-)

So please mrelbe, would you mind updating draft.png so that the "DRAFT" letters' color is somewhere between the one you proposed and the current color?

[mrelbe <mikael@…>]

Replying to cboos:

So please mrelbe, would you mind updating draft.png so that the "DRAFT" letters' color is somewhere between the one you proposed and the current color?

Sorry for being slow, here is an updated proposal.

Current preview

From r9372 we have:

Proposed preview

Replace trunk\trac\htdocs\draft.png@9372 with draft.2.png​ and apply css-r9372.diff​ and we get:

Subtle? Yes, but to the better, and hopefully in-line with you request, cboos.

[mrelbe <mikael@…>]

Oh, excuse me for pasting windows path separators in the source-link above, however I seriously suspect you know what I am aiming at ;) trunk/trac/htdocs/draft.png@9372​

[Christian Boos]

Perfect! Looks better on the different screens I tested. Change applied in r9373.