Re: gEDA-user: pcb gtk: Toggle buttons for route styles?

[Andrew Poelstra <asp11@xxxxxx>]

On Fri, Sep 02, 2011 at 03:02:51AM +0200, Kai-Martin Knaak wrote:
> Andrew Poelstra wrote:
> 
> > Can we use toggle buttons instead of radio buttons for the
> > route style selector? It would look like so:
> > 
> > http://wpsoftware.net/andrew/dump/toggle.png
> > 
> > This gives more clickable area and a cleaner look, I think.
> 
> The look is still inconsistent. The buttons are centered. By
> contrast, the tool box and the layer lines are flush-left.
> 
> 
> I'd prefer a more radical change:
> 
> 1) Make the route styles as user configurable as the layers. That
> is, allow to add odr delete styles, change the order they appear 
> in the GUI, 
>

Nope, core changes required. I can allow the addition of arbitrarily
many temporary layers (and I plan to), but that's pretty much the extent
of what I can do without making serious changes.
 
> 2) Attach accel-keys to route styles. I know, we are running out 
> of accels. But this is an important omission in the current GUI. 
> Changing route styles is a very frequent action while manual 
> routing. How about [ctrl-F1], ... [ctrl-F12]?
>

Sure. Unless someone has a better idea, I'll go with these.
 
> 3) Add a little preview to the left of the route style name, that
> indicates the width of the tracks. Actual width in the preview may 
> be calculated relative to the other route styles. 
> 

I considered this, but route styles control more than just line
size, and I don't think "relative to the other route styles" would
be very useful.

> 4) Get rid of the "Route Style" button. Its meaning depends on
> the currently selected route style. This is very non-standard and 
> newbie unfriendly. 

Here is my proposal: add an 's' to "Route Style" and have it load
this dialog:

http://wpsoftware.net/andrew/dump/styles-dialog.png

> Proposal: Move its function to right-mouse click on every style button. 
> Ideally, this would be complimented by a config page in prefernces in 
> case a user can't do right-clicks (e.g. mac users). This would also be 
> the place to change order config accel keys or add more route styles.
> Side effect: More space in the right sidebar :-)
> 
> To fully implement these proposals, changes in the internals of pcb
> are required. But at least, a GUI-only redesign should not conflict
> such ideas.
>
 
-- 
Andrew Poelstra
Email: asp11 at sfu.ca OR apoelstra at wpsoftware.net

"Do whatever you want. Do what you think is important.
 Everybody is an individual."  --Ron Paul



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