[Lazarus] TSplitter

[Hans-Peter Diettrich]

Bernd Kreuss schrieb:

> The splitter is *expected* to be positioned freely in the *middle* of
> the form *between* other controls. This is intuitive. Gluing it
> unmovable to one of the form borders by default until the user finds out
> how to make it movable (or how the alternative strange old Delphi usage
> is supposed to work) is not intuitve, IMHO.

So why should it be intuitive to add an splitter first, and to add the 
splitted components later - provided that you don't forget to do so?

>> Many people find Align more intuitive than Anchors. Especially those
>> coming from Delphi or other frameworks.
> 
> You are confusing learned behavior with intuition and don't recognize it
> anymore. This is a common problem in software development. What the
> developer finds "intuitive" is in reality only what he knows how to do
> because he is trained to do it.
> 
> To find out what is intuitive and what is counterintuitive there is *no*
> way around *listening* to what unconditioned and unbiased users tell you
> about *their* experience and by observing *their* usage patterns when
> they are using it for the first time!

Please write up your ideas about intuitive GUI layouts, and compare 
these to the established layout management procedures, as implemented in 
e.g. in the Java, gtk2 or other layout managers.

The simplest and most stable layout is based on zones of vertical or 
horizontal orientation. Every zone can be subdivided in zones 
(components) of the opposite (horizontal or vertical) orientation (see 
DockTree. Every zone can have one dynamically sized component 
(alClient), all others have fixed sizes.

DoDi