[Gretl-users] Suggesting a new look for gretl.

[Allin Cottrell]

On Sun, 16 Jul 2006, Talha Yalta wrote:

> I have a few suggestions that I think has the potential to 
> improve gretl significantly. But, first of all, as a newcomer, 
> I hope you don't consider my continously suggesting things in 
> a negative way.

No, you're very welcome to make suggestions.  We'll even 
implement some of them!  (Current CVS has some further 
small modifications to the handling of p-values in the light of 
your tests.)

> 1- My first and most important suggeston is to make the gretl 
> main window the icon view. The list of variables will be 
> removed and turned into an icon itself.

I've been meaning to write a full response to your comments on 
the overall gui design (you have thought about this carefully 
and certainly deserve a response), but I haven't had time yet. 
At present I only have time for a brief response:

1) Personally, I disagree quite strongly: I find the variable 
listing window very useful and the icon view useful only for 
specialized, low-frequency tasks (composing and viewing the 
"model table" or "graph page").

2) The variable listing window is quite dense in shortcuts and 
tricks which are probably not obvious at first but which make an 
"expert" user quite productive.  I'll try to write something up 
on this before long.

3) Gretl is now enough of a community project that you shouldn't 
take my negative on point 1 as "end of story".  It _is_ end of 
story for the 1.6.0 release -- there will be no gui redesign 
beyond a more logical arrangement of menu items -- but 
thereafter we can reopen this question again.

> 2- My second suggestion is: the "file" menu can be modified so 
> that the first items are "new session" "open session", "save 
> session", "save session as" "close session" etc. This is 
> because the main mode of working is through "sessions".

I don't really get "new session".  You've entered a new session 
simply by starting the program.  Now you most likely want to 
open a data file -- or a script, or perhaps a saved session.
I'd be happy to discuss this sort of thing after 1.6.0, but not 
right now, because what you have in mind is, IMO, more then a 
menu tidy-up, as in:

> a selection diaog can provide the options to create "null 
> data" or open or import various existing data files.

> 3- I think splash screens are important... I am happy to try a 
> few desings so that you can select the one that you like the 
> most. I can get started when I have the high resolution Gretel 
> image. By the way where does this image come from? Can we get 
> into trouble for using it? You guys are positive that should 
> be the theme in the splash screen?

I got the Gretel image off the web in 2000.  Via Google images 
I've found the same jpeg at

http://legends.duelingmodems.com/fairy/index.html

There's no copyright info there, and this seems to be a 
relatively new site, probably not where I got it from 
originally.  Apparently it's not the work of any of the 
better-known Grimm illustrators.  Another site is using an 
edited version of the same file.  I think we're OK.

I think Gretel should be in the design somewhere, but it needn't 
be centred on her.

> Finally I would like to share the good news that the review of 
> the upcoming gretl 1.6.0 and its numerical accuracy that I 
> coauthored with my wife is accepted to JAE for publication in 
> the software section.

Excellent!

Allin.