Re: [Gnumed-devel] Drug database/browser/prescription design

[Horst Herb]

On Sun, 8 Sep 2002 07:44 am, Hilmar Berger wrote:

> 1. What is the supposed relation of the pharmaceutical
> reference browser to the prescription dialogue ?

It provides a handy way of browsing drug references. Thus it should be 
accessible as standalone module, and from within the prescription dialogue

> 2. The documentation of the prescription dialogue
> (gnumed/html/developers-manual/prescriptiondialogue.html) mentions
> abundant use of popup windows. I learned that popups are thought to be a
> bad thing (although I don't quite understand why) and should be avoided.

Popups are generally a bad thing because they irritate. The eye (and keying 
hand!)  has to shift focus, and often an unneccessary key or mouse click  is 
made neccessary to make the popup disappear. Thus, *whenever reasonable*, we 
*avoid* popups. The only "taboo" is the intrusive popup type that appears 
suddenly unasked and unexpected. Popups to provide information / data entry 
facilities that simply wouldn't fit onto the screen / into the workflow 
otherwise, are allowed.

> IMHO the prescription dialogue already present in GnuMed
> (gmGP_Prescriptions.py) neither holds all the infomation mentioned in the
> documentaion nor is there enough space to implement all the controls
> needed. Is it possible to implement this dialogue as an popup window
> started from gmGP_Prescriptions.py ?

The design in the documentation was my own, initial one. The one in CVS now is 
Richard's design.  Richard's ideas of gui design often differ significantly 
from mine. While I have maximum functionality regarding access to backend 
information in mind, his design is sometimes more ergonomical and always more 
eye candy - simply looks better, and this is what most users want. Thus, 
we'll need to rewrite the documentation her.

> 3. If the backend definition for the drug database does not match the
> specification of some regionally available database, should the current
> definition made more general to match it or should it be customized to the
> special requirements ?

Yes, we are still working on that one. The gmdrugs.sql in CVS does not match 
my own version which has about twice as many tables, I am working on merging 
the two.

Horst