kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Moses McKnight <moses@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/09/2015 10:18 AM, Markus Hitter wrote:
> Am 09.10.2015 um 16:27 schrieb Moses McKnight:
> > Kicad is a specialized tool, not a general graphics program
>
> Perhaps you miss a bit the point that it still does the very same as
> these generic graphics apps: draw lines of a specific width onto a
> canvas. Generic graphics artists don't make their applications
> intentionally difficult to use, either. They also work many hours a day,
> every day, on a work.
>
> The only difference besides all the automatic helpers (grid, rat lines,
> auto-DRC, etc.) I could find so far is that changing the layer happens
> more often and is more meaningful than in an artistic application.
>
> Perhaps another one is that some functionality like stretching, scaling
> or splines is rare, so one might find better uses for their usual shortcuts.

I would say the differences are a bit more than that.  I find I very often have 
to delete tracks while routing a board, or sometimes only a segment.  With the 
legacy canvas that is a one step operation (delete) without switching 
modes/tools, but with the OpenGL canvas it is several steps including switching 
tools, selecting a track or segment, deleting, and then switching *back* to the 
track tool.

> To my observation some 80% of the typical UI behaviour discussion is
> about already existing habits and the search for reasons to defend them.
> Not that habits are wrong per se, but 100 users happen to have some 150
> distinct sets of these habits, so it's difficult to find an agreement on
> such a base. I hope I don't offend anybody with this statement.

I agree, and "intuitive" depends entirely on what someone is used to.  I'm all 
for making things similar in usage to other programs so it is more familiar, but 
I'm also even more for making things easier to use and more efficient to use. 
If the "standard" way of doing something is less efficient than another way for 
a particular program or use-case - create a new standard!
What I really don't like is losing an existing more efficient method so we can 
"mimic behaviour known from other widely used software packages".
I don't see why we can't have both behaviours in this case.  Mouse over and hit 
delete/backspace while in track mode, but also (for the newbies), switch to 
select mode, click on track, delete, switch back to track tool.

> I like that this wiki page tries to find independent, measurable
> reasoning, even if I disagree with one or another of the findings.
>
> Markus

I would agree overall.

For the present, I just continue to use the default canvas for about everything 
except routing.  The PNS router is definitely great!

Moses