General Info on the Expecco UI/en
This document describes some details of the expecco UI, which may not be well known, but are nevertheless very helpful.
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Personal Settings[Bearbeiten]
Many aspects of the UI can be adjusted to your personal style via the settings dialog ("Extras" - "Settings"). Setting parameters are stored in a file in your home folder "~/.expecco/.expeccoPreferences", where "~" stands for your home folder. The home folder is typically "/home/<yourName>" on Linux systems, "/Users/<yourName>" on OSX, and "c:\users\<yourName>\Documents" on MS-Windows systems.
The entry tab of the the settings dialog shows the name of your settings file (and also provides a link to inspect its contents).
The settings file contains mostly UI-related parameters, but a few attributes which affect the execution are also stored there (debugging flags, which control if a debugger should be opened in case of errors). It is possible to pass use different settings files by giving the "--settings" command line argument.
Keyboard Focus[Bearbeiten]
The keyboard focus window is the (sub-) window, which processes your keyboard input. Unless explicitly set via the "Extras"-"Settings"-"Look & Feel" dialog, the default behavior is initially set according to the operating system's usual default behavior.
This is different between Unix and MS-Windows systems:
- in Unix/Linux, the keyboard focus follows the mouse. I.e. you do not need to click into a window to change the focus. Just move the mouse pointer over/into that window.
- in Windows, the focus remains in a window, until some other window is clicked.
In most cases, this default setting corresponds to the user's expectations. However, if you prefer the other style, change this in the above mentioned settings dialog.
Click vs. Press[Bearbeiten]
Some UI components behave differently between click and press. In this context, "click" means: "a short click with immediate release of the mouse button", whereas "press" means: "press and keep the mouse button pressed".
Right-Click for Menu[Bearbeiten]
The standard MS-Windows behavior on right-click is to first select the element under the mouse pointer AND then show the popup-menu for the selected element when the mouse button is released.
In contrast, most Unix/Linux UIs reserve the left mouse button for selection and the right button for menus (i.e. you can right-click anywhere, without affecting the selection).
The setting chan be changed via "Extra"-"Settings"-"Look & Feel" - "Tree" - "Select on Right-Click".
Toolbar Buttons with Menus[Bearbeiten]
Some toolbar buttons show a little "down-arrow" to the right of the icon. These buttons provide a menu, when clicked or pressed.
Buttons with a black arrow will always show a menu when clicked or pressed ("click" means: "a short click with immediate release of the mouse button", whereas "press" means: "press and keep the mouse button pressed").
Buttons with a grey arrow button behave differently on "click" vs. "press". When clicked, a standard action is performed, whereas when pressed, the menu appears after a short time delay. For example, the "History-Back" button in the main window shows this behavior: if clicked, it navigates back to the previously visited item. If pressed, it presents a list of previously visited items to choose from.
