kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@...>]

> > David,
> >
> > Like a popup list box (in a small modeless dialog) which lists the nets 
> > by "net name" , and with a checkbox to the left of each net name. If 
> > the check box is selected, then those nets (and attached pins) are 
> > highlighted. If several nets can be highlighted, then one net can be 
> > highlight as a simpler case. Then with this feature, maybe indeed the 
> > missing bubble is not needed. I don't know that bubbles are a universal 
> > feature of all pin types, are they?
>
> Power pins don't have the connection bubble so you wouldn't get any
> indication for power and ground components. Doesn't running the DRC
> highlight unconnected nets? Rather than a popup dialog, a more flexible
> solution might be a docking panel (like wxAUI) that displays a tree view
> of all the drawing objects. You could expand the drawing object and
> view all or some of its parameters. If you really wanted to be clever,
> you could allow users to modify the editable parameters in the tree
> control. This way you wouldn't have to open an individual dialog box to
> edit the parameters for each drawing object.

A tree is nice for document navigation. But for object (tree node) 
inspection and modification, I prefer an object specific dialog.

wxAUI sounds reasonable if it does both docking and floating. I have a 
dual screen so I like to be able to put ancillary, persistent popups on 
the other screen, not having to give up space on my primary work area. 
i.e., I would not tend to use the docking feature since it makes the 
primary work area smaller.

Been sitting at a computer now for 40 hours per week for 25 years, most 
of that time writing C++ code. So I have no shortage of UI "user 
experience" nor any shortage of opinions on which aspects of the user 
experience were pleasant or not. But I guess that went without 
saying. :-)

The kicad user experience is something that needs continued focus.

Dick

> The benefit of the wxAUI
> type design is that you can undock the panel from the main window
> effectively making it like a modeless dialog or turn if off when it
> takes up too much of the drawing area. It's just something to think
> about for some future improvements. In the short term, you could
> provide net connection information in the message panel. When you
> select a component by left clicking, some of the parameter information
> about the component is displayed in the message panel. Something
> similar could be done for wire and bus nets by displaying the net name
> an all of the connection points. You also could display the same
> information in a tool tip when the cursor hovers over the net. I
> generally like to avoid dialog boxes (even modeless ones) unless the
> application cannot continue without some user input. I just wanted to
> throw out some other ideas for consideration.
>
> Wayne