GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 350993
Hide main window until fully initialized?
Last modified: 2018-06-29 21:11:14 UTC
When GnuCash starts up, it shows a splash screen. Shortly thereafter, the main window shows up, but it's not fully populated. I believe that only the splash screen should be shown, and the main window should appear only when it's fully populated (the point at which the splash screen disappears). Other information:
There are different opinions about the preferred startup procedure. The general majority seems to ask for getting rid of the splash screen completely, which was the reason to add an appropriate option to the preference ("hide splash screen" or something like that). If there is no splash screen, it would be even more important to show the main window as soon as possible, even if it is not yet fully initialized. Do you think it should rather be the other way round? I don't think many people would agree to such a behaviour... Well, the point is that gnucash does need some time for initialization, and we have to choose what the main window should do during this time. Currently we are quite sure it is better to show it so that there is some feedback to the user. What do other people think?
I hate splash screens. They're completely useless. However, if you're going to have one, you shouldn't be showing an incomplete main window. It's visually distracting and frustrating, In reality, I would prefer that you (and all other applications) show absolutely nothing until the application is fully initalized. GNOME has startup notification, as does KDE, so I can see that I've successfully clicked on the icon (if I had any doubt). By not spawning windows pre-maturely, you would allow me to click back into another window and do something else while GnuCash loads. With proper focusing behavior (which KDE does better than GNOME, but even GNOME is good enough), the GnuCash window won't interrupt me when it appears. If you think a preference is justified, then I'd do something like this: [X] Show splash screen When checked (the default), a splash screen is shown while the application loads. When it's ready, the main window appears and the splash screen disappears. When the option is unchecked, nothing shows while the application loads, and the main window comes up when ready.
Here's another way to look at this... Imagine what happens when I login and have things set to spawn Banshee, OpenOffice.org, GnuCash, Gaim, and Firefox, for example. The desired result is that I see one window from each of OpenOffice.org, Firefox, and GnuCash once they're ready. If I do nothing, I should see the window from the first-started app on top. If I click on the first window that comes up, I should see the other come up in the background, but they shouldn't steal my focus. Gaim and Banshee should stay in the system tray, where they were before. OpenOffice.org and GnuCash both fire up annoying splash screens, and GnuCash makes things worse with that main window. Gaim and Firefox behave properly. Banshee needs to remember to stay in the tray, but at least it doesn't have a splash screen. If every application behaved like OpenOffice.org, I'd have 5 splash screens. If every application behaved like GnuCash, I'd have 5 splash screens and 5 partially-filled windows. Now, granted, I'm exaggerating, as most things don't need as long to start up as GnuCash. However, as the number of applications fired up at startup increases, this becomes a bigger problem. Anyway, it's something to think about. I filed this bug to get my opinion heard. I really love GnuCash and I'm hoping this is taken as constructive feedback, not whining.
I was saying such a preference "show splash screen" already exists... wait, it exists only in the "trunk" development branch, not in the 2.0 branch, so it's probably not (yet) available to you.
Here's my two cents, for what it's worth. Personally I find the new splash screen *incredibly* annoying, since it is obscures other windows and can't be lowered, thus effectively preventing me from doing anything else for the time it takes gnucash to start up - which on my machine is significant. I love love love gnucash, but the splash screen kills the mood. I didn't mind the old version, which was a smaller, less-intrusive splash that also behaved like a regular window so you could raise other windows above it if you wanted to get some work done while gnucash started up. But perhaps an even better solution would be to map the main window immediately (thus making it obvious that gnucash is starting up) with only a splash graphic showing inside the window. then when everything is loaded, resize the window, disappear the splash graphic, and display the regular controls/registers. I think that would solve all the problems: - you get immediate feedback that gnucash is starting; - the splash is a regular window so you can move it to the back and work on something else; - there's only one window, not two. It would still be nice to include the checkbox to toggle the splash screen off, in which case you could just map the main window when everything is ready, instead of mapping it immediately with the splash graphic inside. Personally i'd actually prefer to have the splash as long as it was well-behaved, like a normal window. Hope that helps.
*** Bug 426934 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Having the splash as a page as per Comment#5 might be a really cute way of solving all the problems, here.
It might be a cute way to solving the problem, but it would make it impossible to "fix" bug #366418.
(In reply to comment #8) > It might be a cute way to solving the problem, but it would make it impossible > to "fix" bug #366418. I don't see why. Click splash -> close page.
Bug 366418 has been fixed. What to do with this one? NOTABUG for me.
(In reply to comment #10) > Bug 366418 has been fixed. What to do with this one? NOTABUG for me. I disagree. This issue is now even more annoying ... the useless window is even larger. :)
(In reply to comment #11) > (In reply to comment #10) > > Bug 366418 has been fixed. What to do with this one? NOTABUG for me. > > I disagree. This issue is now even more annoying ... the useless window is > even larger. :) Oh ... 366418! Nevermind me, then. Nevertheless, this is still an issue, imho. It's a big nasty window that we're not finished building. We should either make it useful or delay brining it up until it is ({useful,populated}).
trunk/@15986, 2.1.1.
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