Aven Bug (well, interface issues at least)

[Olly Betts]

On Mon, Jan 06, 2003 at 03:52:59PM +0000, Mark Shinwell wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 06, 2003 at 03:42:39PM +0000, Olly Betts wrote:
> > That's probably because ghostview and acroread don't have a "centre on
> > survey station" feature (or anything remotely like it).
> 
> No, but they do have a canvas which is being panned around; I don't see
> why the 3D bit is relevant here as the orientation is fixed during such
> an operation.  Besides, I was more thinking of programs like Illustrator
> which, as far as I can recall, have similar functionality.

The 3D part is relevant in that there are more operations to be allocated to
a limited number of buttons.

The one bit of functionality which acroread and ghostview share with aven
(namely panning a view) is achieved in much the same way (by dragging
with a mousebutton), although the dragging in ghostview is backwards to
my mind (I expect to drag the "paper", not myself).

I can't say what Illustrator does since I don't have it.

> It seems most bizarre to press a button, move one pixel and have the
> cave move by that small amount, whereas if you don't move at all then it
> suddenly jumps.  That hardly sounds intuitive to me.

That's what currently happens with the left button, and it seems to work
intuitively for me - I've never noticed myself clicking when I wanted to
drag, or vice versa.  The only annoying thing about it is that select and
centre are nailed together at present.

Just don't think of it as a zero length drag vs non-zero length drag -
that's a developer's way of thinking; what matters is how it looks to the
user.  So think of it as drag vs.  click.  Telling the difference is the
computer's problem, and it seems to be able to tell which I intend.

> Given that the left button is likely to be used for the discrete action
> of selecting stations, etc, then surely it makes more sense to use the
> same button with a modifier key if you want to centre?

The left button is also used for scale and rotate when dragged, as well
as for selecting a station.  Why does it make more sense to overload
left-click with modifiers than to use the right button for drag and
click too?

Cheers,
    Olly