[bug #13582] NSRunAlertPanel() should wrap the message string where possible

[Peter Cooper]

URL:
  <http://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?func=detailitem&item_id=13582>

                 Summary: NSRunAlertPanel() should wrap the message string
where possible
                 Project: GNUstep
            Submitted by: comrade
            Submitted on: Thu 06/30/2005 at 13:37
                Category: Gui/AppKit
                Severity: 3 - Normal
              Item Group: Bug
                  Status: None
                 Privacy: Public
             Assigned to: None
             Open/Closed: Open

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Details:

When NSRunAlertPanel() is called, the dialog box that appears is the full
width of the message string, or if the message string is too wide for the
screen, then a full-width window is created with a *horizontal* scrollbar.

Not only does this look unappealing, but makes the message harder to
understand for an end-user (we're not so good at reading long horizontal runs
of text). I do not believe that the application designer should have to
manually line-break the message to the user unless strictly necessary for
comprehension.

When I look at the source of NSAlert.m, I see that the current behaviour is
what the coder intended. I believe that this is a usability problem.

The panel should contain the wrapped text of the message and adjust its
height, not width. The code that looks like it does the work is the
sizePanelToFit method.

If this bug report is rejected, then I'd suggest we strongly encourage
developers to use a short message and add an "explain" button to their Alert
panels which displays the more complete text (a la the OpenStep UI
Guidelines).







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