kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 4/16/2013 3:41 AM, Fabrizio Tappero wrote:
> Hi Wayne,
> could you please elaborate a little more on the composite widget? En
> example would be great. I'll think about the color overload and white
> text.
> cheers
> Fabrizio

Hey Fabrizio,

You've sort have already done this by merging the color selection button
and visibility checkbox of the current design.  The difficult part will
be to come up with a reasonable mouse behavior to handle the interaction
between choosing the layer color and setting the layer visibility in the
same contol.  There is always context menus but they require extra steps.

Regards,

Wayne

> 
> On Tue, Apr 16, 2013 at 12:46 AM, Wayne Stambaugh
> <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>> 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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>>
>>
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>