#3972 NORM Opportu: "Self-documenting" Sugar, or context sensitive help (was: Sugar should be "self-documenting", one idea would be to use a 3rd state of palettes)

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#3972: "Self-documenting" Sugar, or context sensitive help
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  Reporter:  HoboPrimate       |       Owner:  marco      
      Type:  enhancement       |      Status:  new        
  Priority:  normal            |   Milestone:  Opportunity
 Component:  interface-design  |     Version:             
Resolution:                    |    Keywords:             
  Verified:  0                 |  
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Changes (by Eben):

 * cc: christianmarc, okada, walter (added)
  * owner:  Eben => marco


Comment:

 I think that adding a third state might be pushing things a bit far, not
 to mention complicate the implementation.  However, there are aspects of
 your idea that I've been considering for palettes which can work nicely
 with the two stage approach.

 First, we can always add some basic descriptive text either above or below
 the "actions" list of the secondary palette.  This could even include a
 graphic, if needed. Of course, this also works fine when there are no
 secondary actions at all, eg. in the AC/DC case, where the whole secondary
 palette could provide this service.  Palettes were specifically designed
 with this freeform nature to allow such uses, rather than restricting them
 to a basic "menu."  This type of functionality, as far as I know, is
 already supported.

 The other option which has been discussed in the past is appending a
 standardized "help" action to the list of actions available, which would
 intelligently query a database for the activity and control currently in
 use, and locate any relevant info, documentation, or tutorials for it.
 Wether this would be a system level service shown in an overlay, or a
 separate activity, or an online site, I'm not sure.  But the availability
 of a context-sensitive help option, even if the info isn't shown inline,
 is a really powerful one.

 Marco, any thoughts on how the latter functionality could be added?  It
 would be pretty slick.

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Ticket URL: <http://dev.laptop.org/ticket/3972#comment:2>
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