kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Clemens Koller <cko@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hallo, Jon!

On 2017-02-11 20:21, Jon Evans wrote:
> I had been thinking about proposing this already as a UX enhancement,
> and then while looking through the starter bugs realized that lp:1154020 [1]
> is actually quite difficult to solve in a nice way due to the popup menu
> used for clarification today, so I decided to send it out now.

UX in this context, doing big designs, means primarily (to me) to:
a) reduce the number of mouse clicks with easy to access hotkeys,
b) reduce the number of keystrokes / different menus,
c) make all this easy to remember and intuitive by using proper arrangements of menus showing hotkeys, buttons and icons.
...

I got bitten by mouse finger RSI more than once, so I am *really* picky with a) !!!
Just count the mouse clicks when doing a complex layout...

> I propose that we change the selection code to "guess" at the item the user wanted to select,
> and let the user cycle through the set of items that are near the last point they clicked
> with a hotkey (and possible a context menu option "Next").
> This is similar to how the commercial tools I've used work.

I completely agree with you here. I am using some expensive commercial tools on a daily basis.
One of it seems really efficient to me regarding input methods, but I think they can still be improved a bit.

Ideas quite similar to yours - propably a bit more detailed:

1a) a single stroke hotkey activates a function which can be applied to some objects / object filters get set accordingly.
a) highlight (select) one (or optionally highlight all to avoid delays by accidenly wrong guessed) objects just by hovering over - without a click.
b) allow to prioritize and snap to objects (filters get selected by operation/context by easy to access filters)
c) allow to cycle (forwards and backwards) through the objects by hotkey (Tab comes in handy) or optionally the scroll wheel.
1b) a *generic* "execute" hotkey (Spacebar or Return) activates the preselected function of 1a).
(2) a hotkey activates a function depending on the highlighted object.
(3) the context menu opens up with all available functions which can be executed on the highlighted object (and shows the hotkeys).


You can go through 1a) a) b) c) 1b)   or through    a) b) c) 2) or 3)


Regards,

Clemens