Thank you for taking the time to answer to my initial reactions after
working with the new cursor for only a short peroid of time!
On 8/2/10 00:31, bulia byak wrote:
On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 12:07 PM, ~suv <suv-sf@...58...> wrote:
> - The additional offset hand distracts me from the actual target ;)
I think that just needs some getting used to.
Yes, I know and I will ;)
Most often I adapt easily to existing limitations or new changes -
however it seems as if I picked the wrong topic to speak up about some
of my doubts... ?
> - I'm repeatedly confused while editing which of the two
equally-shaded
> (i.e. outline only) shapes - the arrow or the hand - is actually aiming
> the target.
Yet this is consistent with most other Inkscape custom cursors, which
typically also have two parts: a pointer (usually a cross) and an
icon. The only difference is that here, the pointer is an arrow, not a
cross. But this is justified by the fact that it is a second cursor in
a tool, whose first cursor is also an arrow, so we're improving
consistency here.
Unfortunately that default arrow is not Inkscape-custom, it is the
system arrow cursor and so is different across platforms and cursor
themes. I made the mouseover/drag arrow as close as possible to the
default Windows arrow, which I suspect is our largest user base. It is
also fairly similar to the default Ubuntu cursor. It works worse,
admittedly, on OSX where the default arrow is black, not white. But I
think that even there, it is at least not worse than the old one which
wasn't even an arrow at all.
This seems to be the main reason for my initial irritation after
noticing the new cursor for the select tool: The new white arrow is way
bigger than the black system arrow used on Mac OS X when not hovering a
selectable object. This makes switching to the custom cursor visually
awkward (as if the cursor jumps - it doesn't, I know ;-) and distracting
(inverting the color).
> This might be due to being used to other (native)
> applications on Mac OS X which have the (clinched) hand symbol without
> arrow when panning and the arrow without hand when dragging an element
> with the mouse.
We might indeed use hand-only cursor for panning canvas. But not for
object dragging and mouseovering - this is a different situation
altogether. It has been Inkscape's big usability advantage that it
shows you at once, by changing cursor, that you're over a selectable
object. I just made this feature more consistent and precise.
GIMP 2.6.8 on OS X uses the four-way arrow as symbol with the arrow
cursor for the move tool - personally I think I'd prefer this for
Inkscape's select tool as well. It would make the transition to the new
custom cursor easier for Mac OS X users (re-using the previous cursor as
symbol for the new arrow cursor) and reserve the hand tool for a new
panning tool/custom cursor.
> 1) I don't use vector applications like Illustrator or
CorelDraw - my
> comparsion with other osx applications is limited.
> 2) GIMP 2.6.8 on OS X uses the same (linux?) type of cursors (arrow +
> symbol), but the arrow it clearly emphasized as pointer, and IMHO GIMP's
> cursor for the move tool is better suited than the clinched hand now
> used in Inkscape (which to me denotes panning not dragging).
I'm not sure what is meant by "arrow emphasized as pointer" - if it's
an arrow it's pointer enough, no? :)
Not knowing a lot about the techniques used to display cursors I think
this could be due to what Alexandre asked for - 'full greyscale + alpha
channel'?
Gimp's cursors appear different to me as in:
- the arrow is bigger in relation to its accompanying symbol
- the arrow is lighter, the symbol seems to be rendered slightly darker
As for hand, I think it works fine, but please feel free to suggest
another icon. What pair of icons would be easy to recognize _and_ be
related _and_ clearly denote the "something can be selected here" and
"you're dragging the selection" ideas?
see above: I'd prefer to keep the previous four-way arrow as
accompanying symbol for the two-part custom cursor of the select tool.
Could the state of "you're dragging the selection" be indicated e.g. by
always showing the rotation center of the object while dragging instead
of changing the custom cursor?
~suv