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Re: RFC: Change UX for item selection clarification

 

Hmm, I am a fan of the selection menu that pops up actually, I would like to keep it.

I think that the list can be used simultaneous with the hotkeys and autoselection. Just hide it whenever another action is invoked on the item that is curently selected in the list.

- Kristoffer

On 2017-02-12 00:16, Jon Evans wrote:
I was going to add a context menu entry for "next selection", is that
obvious enough to you or do you think there should be extra hints?

On Feb 11, 2017 18:14, "Chris Pavlina" <pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx
<mailto:pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

    Very nice. I only think it needs to be a bit more obvious how to do it.

    On Sat, Feb 11, 2017 at 05:49:05PM -0500, Jon Evans wrote:
    > Proof of concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfnXPosOHcY
    <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfnXPosOHcY>
    > (when you see the selection changing, I'm hitting the new hotkey I
    made for
    > cycling through items)
    >
    > On Sat, Feb 11, 2017 at 2:24 PM, Chris Pavlina
    <pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx>>
    > wrote:
    >
    > > I wish I had thoughts more verbose than "yes" right now... Yeah,
    this is
    > > how most tools work, and it's quite intuitive. I would be 100%
    in favor
    > > of implementing it this way.
    > >
    > > On Sat, Feb 11, 2017 at 02:21:08PM -0500, Jon Evans wrote:
    > > > Hi all,
    > > >
    > > > 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.
    > > >
    > > > 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.
    > > >
    > > > A few more ideas about this:
    > > >
    > > > - The currently selected item needs to be indicated somehow.
    Currently
    > > we
    > > > don't highlight all items when selected (for example, fields)
    and so
    > > either
    > > > highlighting which item you are selecting or showing it in the
    message
    > > > panel would be required for this to be friendly.
    > > >
    > > > - This would tie in nicely to selection filtering stuff that
    other devs
    > > are
    > > > working on.  Turning on a selection filter mode ("components
    only", "text
    > > > objects only", etc) would restrict the set of items that can
    be picked,
    > > and
    > > > greatly increase the chance that the right item will be
    selected on the
    > > > first click.
    > > >
    > > > - Some commercial tools have "focus" modes, which are kind of like
    > > filters,
    > > > but they don't restrict what you can select, but rather
    influence what
    > > will
    > > > be selected first.  So if you are in "component focus mode"
    and you
    > > select
    > > > a component with a label on top, the component will always be
    selected
    > > > first.
    > > >
    > > > - We could map two hotkeys next to each other (for example ","
    and "." on
    > > > QWERTY keyboards) and let people step forward and backward
    through the
    > > > clarification list
    > > >
    > > > I think this change would make item selection faster, allow
    fixing some
    > > > long-standing bugs, and work nicely with enhancements to selection
    > > > filtering that are coming.  The one downside is that you would
    no longer
    > > > get a list of all items that are underneath the cursor, but I
    can't see
    > > the
    > > > value in that information.
    > > >
    > > > Any thoughts on this?
    > > >
    > > > Best,
    > > > Jon
    > > >
    > > > [1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1154020
    <https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1154020>
    > >
    > >



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