Frontend redesign

[Ravi Pandya <ravi>]

OUTLINE LAYOUT:

I must admit that I have always hated the idea of having four kinds of
symbols between the left margin and the outline text. The left edge is
extremely valuable real estate for people who read left-to-right, and it
shouldn't be cluttered. I suggested a design to get around this at a
discussion Hugh & Dean & I had a few weeks ago, and I'll put it back up
for consideration. Circles to the left of every header follow the
indentation of the document, and are used to control the hierarchical
structure. Triangles at the far right edge symbolize the document it
is linked to. You can click on one or several of these to select them,
and double-click on one to follow it. Picture:

*	o The quick brown fox		>
	  o Jumps over the lazy		>
*	o Dog who should have been	>
	  o Looking for the cat		>
	  o Under the mat with		>
*	o The green eggs and ham	>

^	^				^
Links	Control outline hiding etc.	Control document attached
Sensors					to this header

TEXT SELECTION:

Advantages: The sensor and link indicators have the far left edge all to
themselves. Bullets are a standard way of indicating outline lists. The
arrow pointing off the right edge of the document is visually indicative
of a link to somewhere else.

I think the best use of double-clicking on the selection handle (the button
that is used to concretely manipulate a selection) is to open a new
document that is linked to that selection with a default link type, like
"marginal note". This makes it very fast and easy to annotate a document,
and is conceptually close to the other uses of double clicking.

If the selection handles are visible in inactive windows (and I think
they should be), then you can make a link by a modified drag operation
from one to the other. Hmmm, let's try laying this all out...

Click -- locks handle in place so that you can make selections elsewhere
in the same document. This serves the function of a hanging link end as
well. The text should now have a different appearance from a regular
selection, as you could then make another selection in the same document.
If you scroll so that the text it's attached to isn't visible, it should
hang off the top (or bottom) edge of the window. (There might be several
there. There should be some way of distinguishing them if there are.)
Clicking on a locked handle locks the current selection (if there is one),
then makes the clicked on the current selection and scrolls it into view
and unlocks it.

Double-click -- open a new document linked to this selection with some
kind of link, "marginal note" or whatever the user has specified. Perhaps
have a menu to change the link type.

Drag onto some text -- move it there.

Drag onto another selection handle -- move it to replace the contents
of the other selection handle.

Option-drag onto text/handle -- copy it into/on top of destination

Shift-drag onto text/handle -- link it to the other end.

	--ravi