[josm-dev] Dynamic buttons in side menus

[Dirk Stöcker]

On Sat, 15 Oct 2011, Frederik Ramm wrote:

>> I got used to dynamic buttons almost immediately. Just clicked where
>> they usually were, and they appeared right under mouse cursor.
>>
>> Dynamic buttons help a lot on small (mine is 1366x768 and it's small
>> for josm) screens. But it might be worth making them opt-in, because
>> newbies won't find them as easy as old josm users.
>
> Do we all agree that the dynamic buttons are detrimental if you have a
> very large screen, and only useful as a space saving measure for small
> screens - or are there people who have large enough screens and still
> like the dynamic buttons?

Actually not. After a short training phase where the buttons are a bit 
irritating (that was to be expected, as actually it is a rather uncommon 
GUI design, although f.e. GoogleMaps API uses the same) you get used to it 
very fast. And on larger screens you tend to leave more displays open, 
which you have been closing before to save space. So the "save space" 
effect is reduced again due to "more information".

> Maybe we could have a "JOSM netbook edition" and a "JOSM big screen" ;)
> of course each item is configurable individually but perhaps it would
> be good if users could choose between two sets of defaults when they
> first install...?

We will see the reaction to this over the next releases and can adapt the 
system whenever needed. A "edition" preconfiguration sounds useful, but is 
more like a long-term job I think. But it very likely will come in the 
future.

For most issues probably a possibility to turn dynamic buttons off for 
individual sections would help a lot (additional symbol in the menu title, 
so only for experts), as probably only properties and layer list are most 
annoying. I plan to do so for some time, but had not yet the time.

Ciao
-- 
http://www.dstoecker.eu/ (PGP key available)