Re: Gtk scrollbar: thumb too short

[Luc Teirlinck <teirllm@dms.auburn.edu>]

Owen Taylor wrote:

   (Note that by allowing the user to drag the thumb to overscroll,
   no matter how you do it, you make the operation of scrolling
   to the last page of the document a precision operation rather
   than something where the user can just drag the scrollbar down
   as far as it can go quickly.)

I agree that it might be problematic to make overscrolling the default
behavior for *all* applications.  The problem you describe would be
particularly bad for applications that have standard clickable lines at
the bottom that the user may want to reach quickly, style:

<<< Previous       Home       Next>>>

or whatever, especially if that application provided no other
convenient way to scroll to that place (say pressing the "End" key.)

For the character based philosophy of Emacs it is clear where the
overscrolled region starts (just after the last character), but what
exactly happens for applications that themselves already leave
whitespace at the bottom to ensure that the last relevant line will
not be positioned too far to the bottom?

   You have to decide whether dragging the scrollbar to the bottom:

    - Scrolls to last page of the document
    - Scrolls to the maximally overscrolled position (one line
      at the top of the screeen)

Would it be possible for GTK to leave that choice either up to the
application or up to the user?  There are plenty of applications were
if it were up to me I would choose possibility (1).  For Emacs I
would choose (2), the current behavior.  Actually, for Emacs I
personally use the native scrollbar, which seems better adapted to
Emacs' character based philosophy.  This does not mean that I would
want to use that scrollbar for other applications.  What is a good
scrollbar for Emacs is not necessarily a good scrollbar for other
applications and vice versa.

Sincerely,

Luc.