kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Jon Evans <jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

How about something like this?

[image: Inline image 1]

(N.B. I agree with Andy, and think we could consider renaming the options
in the View menu to "Legacy", "Accelerated (OpenGL)" and "Standard (Cairo)"
or something like that)

-Jon

On Sun, Dec 31, 2017 at 11:40 AM, Andy Peters <devel@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

>
> On Dec 31, 2017, at 6:49 AM, Simon Wells <swel024@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> What about having the default set to cairo, and when the first/once run
> dialog runs it talks about openGL (this goes against you already set to
> GAL) but it allows a default that even if it crashes won’t require manually
> editing a configuration to make it workable
>
>
> User perspective:
>
> The names for the canvases are “engineering terms,” that is, something
> named by the developers for their own internal use but were never renamed
> for the end user who might have no idea what is meant by “Cairo canvas” or
> what “GAL” stands for. I say that because early on I asked myself, “WTF is
> this ‘Cairo’ thing?”
>
> I now understand (I think …) that Cairo and GAL implement the same
> features but the latter requires proper OpenGL hardware and drivers, and
> Cairo does not.
>
> So perhaps better terms for these options is “Standard” and “Accelerated
> (OpenGL).” Users know what OpenGL means (I hope, it’s nothing new). As for
> why a user with access to OpenGL hardware would not choose to use it by
> default? Battery life on a laptop, I suppose, but in using Kicad for a few
> years now I can say I’ve never used the Cairo canvas at all.
>
> -a
>
>
>
>
>
> Simon
>
> On 1/01/2018, at 2:48 AM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx> 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,
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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
>
>