kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Jon Evans <cdawzrd@xxxxxxxxx>]

On modern computers, the OpenGL canvas offers by far the best experience
for users. Until we have the code in place to be able to default to OpenGL
and safely / neatly fall back to Cairo if it doesn't work, I think there is
value in telling new users (once) about the fact that they can switch to GL
for better performance.

What I propose to implement is a dialog that appears if a certain (new)
setting in the configuration file is missing and the current canvas is not
OpenGL. When it appears, it will set this value, so will only appear once.

Jon

On Dec 31, 2017 09:02, "Kristoffer Ödmark" <kristofferodmark90@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> My personal preference would be to show the nag-dialog only if the user
> has upgraded from a previous version of kicad, and only once.
>
> New users wouldnt have to be informed, and if possible fallback a fallback
> to the cairo solution instead of falling back to legacy might be tempting.
>
> Could maybe the configuration files be used for this, maybe insert a kicad
> version or something?
>
> -Kristoffer
>
> On 12/31/2017 02:48 PM, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
>
>> I spite of my disdain for nagware, I'll tolerate this under the
>> following conditions:
>>
>> The current canvas is not already on one of the gal canvases.  If the
>> user is already using a gal canvas, a dialog to inform the user about
>> the gal canvas is silly.
>>
>> It's a one shot dialog that never appears again.
>>
>> If the gal canvas crashes, the user isn't going to have to manually edit
>> a configuration file to restore the legacy canvas.  This requirement may
>> prevent us from setting the opengl canvas as the default so the solution
>> may not be as easy as it seems.
>>
>> On 12/31/2017 07:34 AM, Jeff Young wrote:
>>
>>> +1 to the startup dialog idea.
>>>
>>> I think we also need to set reasonable transparencies in the layers so
>>> that it looks more like the default legacy canvas.
>>>
>>
>> I don' think this is necessary given that the gal canvas layer colors
>> and transparencies are completely user configurable but I'm not opposed
>> to a default layer color/transparency configuration that looks more like
>> the legacy canvas.
>>
>>
>>> On 31 Dec 2017, at 10:09, Clemens Koller <cko@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> On 2017-12-31 03:53, Jon Evans wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I know this would be work for someone to do and maybe I'd offer to do
>>>>> it if the project leaders approve...
>>>>> What about a one-time pop-up when first installing a release 5.0 that
>>>>> appears if the config says the user was using legacy canvas, telling them
>>>>> about how to switch and that they should check it out?
>>>>>
>>>>> -Jon
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> +1
>>>> An initial start-up dialog to setup the "users default" after a first
>>>> install or after a "reset Kicad to defaults, as I messed something up I
>>>> don't remember" seems very helpful to me. If OpenGL might still crash in
>>>> rare cases, warn the user in advance and explain, how he can safely step
>>>> back from using OpenGL in case it doesn't work and how to file a bug
>>>> report...
>>>>
>>>> Regards,
>>>>
>>>> Clemens
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>>>> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>>>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>>> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>>
>>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
>> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>>
>>
> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>