Mouse controls (was: Re: Survex 1.1.3 test version uploaded)

[M.J. Green]

On Sep 13 2005, Mark Shinwell wrote:

>On Tue, Sep 13, 2005 at 03:58:30AM +0100, Olly Betts wrote:
>> On Mon, Sep 12, 2005 at 04:10:23PM +0100, Mark Shinwell wrote:
>> > To this end I have produced a patch which allows one to select the
>> > traditional bindings for current and future Aven sessions.
>> 
>> As I've explained before, I don't want to go down this road.  We need to
>> have a good default set of key and mouse bindings.  If the new bindings
>> are genuinely generally disliked, then we should simply revert to the
>> old ones.
>
>Or at least the old ones with some facility for locking the scaling or
>rotation on the left button.
>
>The old controls do need adjusting to some extent anyway so that they
>can be used effectively when the mouse doesn't have enough buttons.

I would say that the current system is a major inconvenience to 2 button 
mouse users, who have lost the ability to rotate. (If 2 buttoned mice still 
exist) Also I much prefer my big left and right mouse buttons rather than 
the small, highly curved one that wants to rotate under my finger.  Tilt is probably the least used movement in aven, so it should be this one that is linked to the middle button, which may not exsist/is hard to use.

I am fairly sure that I would prefer rotations and zooming on the left 
mouse button. I end up doing things like trying to zoom by pushing the 
mouse left or right, normally, I am slightly of axis and end up with an 
irritatingly slow zoom, which takes a while to notice my error. If I saw a 
rotation I would know that I was wrong quicker.

The middle mouse button could be free for tilting by depressing it and 
tilting could also occur with the scroll wheel. (The window I am typing in 
now is scrolled by pressing the middle mouse button or using the scroll 
wheel.) It is irritating when you accidentally put a slight tilt on your 
cave as it can take a while to notice.

For people with a two button mouse, perhaps Ctrl-right could also work as a 
tilt.

It would do no harm to have ctrl and shift left mouse button for just 
zooming or just rotating, but I suspect they would not get used much. If 
this is done then I suggest that the same modifier is used for 'just 
rotate' and tilt, this would be the most consistent in my mind.

> > On Mon, Sep 12, 2005 at 08:45:41PM +0100, Andy Waddington wrote:
> > > Even some of the most rudimentary of computer games on even the 
> > > oldest of hardware (things like Tetris....) allow me to choose what 
> > > key performs what function, and remembers what I chose for the next 
> > > time I want to play the game. Why can't the Survex programs do 
> > > likewise ?

The use of Aven differs from computer games slightly. I am suspect that 
Aven is more commonly used by more than one person simultaneously (when 
discussing a survey more than one person wants to use the mouse), and that 
a particular person will use aven on more machines than typical for 
computer games. Because of this difference, I think the advantages of 
configurable controls would be less significant than the advantages of one 
good user interface that is consistent, in aven compared to your typical 
computer game.

It is common for people to be come disillusioned with the expo computer, 
when they put in effort to work out how to use it, only for it to change.

Cheers,
Martin