[BRLTTY] Status cells: Isn't there one too many cells?

[Dave Mielke]

[quoted lines by Lee Maschmeyer on 2008/12/04 at 11:12 -0500]

>Hmm. I would have thought that if my device has 3 status cells I wouldn't 
>need the program to tell me that the 4th one is the end. I would have 
>thought that if I tell it to use 3 software status cells I wouldn't need the 
>program to tell me that the 4th one is the end, 

The current implementation (not carved in stone) is independent of the number 
of status cells on the actual display. As many as can be displayed are 
displayed. Some displays with real status cells, for example, e.g. the Alva 
Satellite models, let you turn them on and off, which means that sometimes they 
have them and sometimes they don't. Should the user lose his configuration when 
they're turned off? When a user configures some of the text cells to be used as 
status cells, the current implementation allows him to choose to see more or 
less information simply by changing the count.

Are you suggesting that we do away with the variable-length list and always 
make the list only as long as what'll fit on the current display, or are you 
suggesting that we keep the variable-length list but only show the first part 
of it, i.e. only those fields which will actually fit within the current number 
of status cells?

>especially when I tell it to use the 4th one as the separator cell.

This raises an interesting question. The separator is only the last status cell 
when the status cells are positioned on the left. When they're positioned on 
the right then the separator is before the first status cell. That's why 
there's an end-of-loist indicator and why the separator type has its own menu 
item. We could make the end-of-list item be the separator type, but (and I may 
be wrong) I rather suspect that'd confuse those who position the status cells 
on the right.

>But if it isn't considered a bug in the program then it's a bug in the 
>operator 

This is a new feature, and I'm one who believes that we may even have it wrong 
with old features. If our first crack at it is wrong then we'll fix it.

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Dave Mielke           | 2213 Fox Crescent | The Bible is the very Word of God.
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