LC8DP15 feedback-IDE Issues

[Devin Asay]

> On Mar 2, 2016, at 3:42 PM, Richard Gaskin <ambassador at FourthWorld.com> wrote:
> 
> I haven't used the Tools palette in years, but this conversation prompted me to take a gander.
> 
> I wonder if having the Widgets above the basic controls is the best place for them.
> 
> I tend to think of UIs as telling a story, and sometimes that can include communicating the importance of things by their placement.
> 
> Having the Browse and Pointer tools at the top, and giving them the largest target area, seem like good choices given their very central role throughout development.
> 
> But I'll spend weeks at a time adding only buttons and fields to cards, only occasionally using anything else.
> 
> The Widgets, while both useful and cool, are less commonly used. Indeed, most projects will use most of them once or twice if at all.
> 
> Given this, I wonder if it makes more communicative sense to consider moving the basic controls above the Widgets, closer to the always-used Browse and Pointer icons.
> 
> I might even go so far as to consider moving the graphics above Widgets as well, to be consistent in terms of frequency of use, though I recognize that the paint tools are perhaps the least commonly used of all, and they make sense being grouped near the drawing tools, so perhaps leaving that whole set at the bottom is fine, and we could just consider moving the basic tools (buttons, fields, and such) above the Widgets.
> 
> Any opinions on this?

I’m with you on this, Richard. The tools palette is getting very cluttery, and could stand a tidying up. For instance, right now there are:
- 5 button tools
- 5 field tools
- 5 menu button tools
- 4 scrollbar tools

Would it make sense to fold each object class into a single tool with an option to set a different style of each object as the default? Sort of how Photoshop’s tools palette lets you select the type of marquee tool (or shape tool, or magic wand tool, etc. etc.) that is the default.

> 
> 
> PS: What happens when one has 100 Widgets installed?

Right. Now you can choose to hide or show entire sections of the tools palette. (Although I had somehow completely missed that option, and only noticed it when someone here referred to it.)

I’d like to see an option to display only selected widgets (or other tools) on the tools palette.


Devin


Devin Asay
Office of Digital Humanities
Brigham Young University