kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 4/15/2013 12:17 PM, Fabrizio Tappero wrote:
> Hello,
> In attachment an other possible implementation, in my opinion the best one.
>
> Regards
> Fabrizio

This implementation is a little busy (think color overload) for my 
tastes.  I would rather see a composite widget for selecting the color 
and enabling the layer assuming it could be done in a way that it's 
function was obvious the to user.  Also, on some of the lighter colors 
the white text does not show up very well.  That being said, a more 
fundamental question, is the amount of work required to save the width 
of one check box worth the effort?  There is already way to hide the 
layer manager for low resolution devices where space is a premium. 
Assigning an accelerator key to it would probably make it more useful. 
You would probably save more space if you provided a set of 16 pixel 
button images for the toolbars or use a custom theme with smaller 
control designs.  This is very much an issue with some of the GTK+ 
controls on Linux.  Also please keep in mind that the decision not to 
support low resolution devices was made a long time ago.  I don't see 
that policy changing any time soon.

Wayne

> On Mon, Apr 15, 2013 at 2:28 PM, Fabrizio Tappero
> <fabrizio.tappero@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > > Colours on the standard controls are system-defined (depends on what wx
> > > is running on); the colour swatch button or the little arrow beside the
> > > layer name is handled by us so (with some work) we could conceivably add
> > > some extra UI functionality here.
> >
> > Maybe change the checkbox colour isn't a good idea because it will
> > lower usability in the sense that people might not see any more that
> > it is a checkbox. Proposal 3 and proposal 4 can achieve the same thing
> > and be even better. The current blue arrow is a little strange, a
> > black border will be probably better.
> >
> > > A thing I don't like with the current arrangement is having to use the
> > > third button to change layer colour (good luck with laptops...) when it
> > > can be usefully done in this way:
> > > - Click on the button: change color
> > > - Click on the layer name: change layer
> >
> > hum, don't know, this way will be pretty hard for people to guess the
> > functionality. the current middle button click functionality is also
> > quite hidden (but I like it). Maybe a simple "right click - change
> > layer color" is easier. Alternatively we can put and edit link at the
> > bottom of the layer panel. Edit button would maybe also difficult to
> > guess, or maybe not.
> >
> > > I think the layer name is sufficiently big as a target to click to
> > > change layer :D also the whole 3D border for the button is not needed
> > > for the colour swatch, a simple flat border would suffice (thing about
> > > the GIMP color indicator)
> >
> > completely agree, as long as the is a white border when not selected.
> >
> >
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