[josm-dev] Suggestion: entering tags in combobox

[Rick Collins]

I have seen the same problem, but it is not quite as hard to use as 
you describe.  When you type a letter that matches an entry in the 
list, it displays and selects that entire entry.  So when you type 
the second key, it deletes the entire word and does another search 
with your second letter.  If you instead retype the first letter, it 
will then allow you to type the second letter and search 
correctly.  But it repeats the selection when it finds a match and if 
it is not the word you are looking for, it will all be deleted again 
when you type the next letter.... :^(

So this is pretty broken, but not impossible to use.  Of course, if 
using the "metal" style for the interface fixes the problem, then 
that works too...



At 02:21 PM 10/26/2007, Igor Brejc wrote:
>Hello,
>
>First of all congratulations on good work. The user interface has become
>much friendlier since the 0.5 API switch.
>
>But I have one grievance: the combo box for entering tag keys and values
>has become a real pain in the ***. Instead of allowing entering two or
>more starting characters of the wanted value, you now have to enter the
>first character, and then if the offered value does not match your
>expectation, you have to use cursor keys to select the value you need.
>On the surface this doesn't look like a real problem, but it is really a
>classic case of a badly designed user interface. Why? The reason is that
>values offered by JOSM are those which are present in the loaded OSM
>data, so the behaviour of the interface depends on the actual loaded data.
>This leads to inconsistency, example: I want to enter the tag "area =
>yes". I type 'a' and "access" is offered. I then have to use control
>keys so select the actual "area" tag. But if the "area" is the only tag
>starting with 'a', then the cursor keys are not needed
>This system is good if you have tag keys which differ in the starting
>character, but this is rare (examples: access, area, aerialway...,
>landuse, layer, leisure...).
>I liked the old system of entering the starting characters until the
>JOSM found the only matching key. And the old system also worked nicely
>for tags with unique starting characters, since you only had to enter
>the first one.