Re: js-info polishing

[Per Bothner]

On 4/27/21 11:27 AM, Gavin Smith wrote:
> One small problem (I didn't check if it was a problem before or not)
> is that if you click on a link in the table of contents for a section
> it opens in a new browser tab.  For example, click on "Architecture
> Notes" and then "Automatic Input Mode" in the main frame.

Oops. I have a fix I'm testing out.

> One suggestion - somebody might want to click on a subsidiary entry in
> the side bar, for example, click "Techical documentation" and then
> "DOM Structure".  It's awkward for them to do this if the sidebar disappears
> on each click.

Note it only does this in narrow-window-mode.  With a wide-enough window,
the sidebar stays until you explicitly dismiss it.

I could certainly remove the "auto-hide-sidebar-on-navigation" feature
if you think it's a mis-feature.

> I think clicking out of the side-bar mode should be easy
> enough to do so there is no need to do this automatically.

One possibility is that clicking in the sidebar does not remove the sidebar,
but clicking on main display does hide the sidebar:  If you click on a link,
it navigates to it; if you click outside a link, it stays on the same page;
either wide the sidebar would be hidden.

Would that be a better UI?

> When clicking out of the sidebar mode, (by clicking on the main reading
> area) is it possible to disable links in the main text so that the
> user doesn't click on them by mistake?  Again this is just a suggestion
> and by no means a major problem.

I'm guessing it would be easy, if you think that would be preferable.

So if I understand you correctly, you would prefer:
* If the sidebar is hidden, the only way to show it is to click
on the "Show sidebar" button.  (Perhaps we could add a keybinding as well.)
* Navigating by clicking in the sidebar never hides the sidebar.
* In narrow-window mode, clicking in the grayed-out main area,
hides the sidebar, but stays on the current page, even if
(possibly-accidentally) clicking on a link.
* In wide-window mode, clicking in the main area does not hide the sidebar.

Would that seem good?
--
        --Per Bothner
per@bothner.com   http://per.bothner.com/