[Merkaartor] Some interface notes

[Yves Goergen]

On 11.01.2009 00:41 CE(S)T, Hugh Barnes wrote:
> You may decide I'm a strange user and not an especially typical one.

Not so strange at all. :)

> * this one has been mentioned since I first observed it. Large
> relations (coverage-wise) are almost impossible to work with using the
> interface. Further, simply selecting a relation with many members seems
> slow. Thankfully, it's already been well described, so my contribution
> is a suggestion for an alternate interface: how about
> parallel/redundant text-based controls? One could allow selection by
> ID. Just in case I'm having trouble selecting any object, why not allow
> me to input its ID? [1] Another control or menu item could be visible
> on the selection of an object. It would allow users to add the selected
> object(s) to the specified relation ID (a picklist of recently edited
> relations with their names could be provided to aid recall).

I've now tried that out: You can select any single object by entering
its ID with the menu command "Edit, Search" (de: "Bearbeiten, Suchen").
Enter the relation ID into the first text field and it's going to be
selected. It only doesn't work if the relation hasn't been downloaded.
The download option "Resolve relations" may help, but it's so slow that
you won't use it a second time. So adding small ways to a not-downloaded
relation should be possible in some way. Maybe more menu commands in the
"Relation" menu would be good here.

> * FIXED: why does the view area scale back when I use "download more"?
> (thanks again, Yves) [2]

Yes, but as reported, it still jumps when confirming the Preferences
window. Also, it doesn't remember the viewport exactly when restarting
the programme. You always have to zoom one level in to get the previous
state, just like it was on Download More. Seems to be a more general
issue whose symptoms are now partially fixed.

> * I think the task labels "download" and "download more" could be
> rethought. They confused me at first and I suspect confuse most
> newbies. Maybe something like "fetch area" and "reveal more data"? They
> suck, too, but they have the right meaning. "Change viewport" and
> "Retrieve viewport data"??

"Download new area" and "Update current view"? Though the term "Update"
could also refer to something like redraw the screen, I think it may be
obvious that network activity is involved, in between the other download
and upload commands.

> * further on that, I use "download more", more frequently than
> "download", but it has a more difficult keyboard shortcut (^-Shift-D
> vs ^-d). It's a problem to change the interface like this suddenly, but
> can we think about how to address this over time?

Simple actions get simple hotkeys, advanced actions get more complex
hotkeys. Ctrl+D does it quickly (no questions), Ctrl+Shift+D allows you
to give some options (select area window). So, I think swapping both
hotkeys would perfectly make sense. I didn't use them yet, though, since
Merkaartor is already a relatively mouse-intensive application, and when
I've got the mouse in my hand, I can just click on those commands.

> * the column widths in the tag editing control can be resized but don't
> stick. That would be nice if they would.

Fixed some time ago, works now.

http://trac.openstreetmap.org/ticket/1414

> * data cells for relation members do not behave the same way as data
> cells for object tags when I use the TAB key. When I am in the last
> column of the tagging data cell row, I can tab to the next row. I
> cannot do this for relation members.

Has there been a change regarding keyboard handling of the tags table
recently? I think I recall there was a difference between pressing Tab
and Enter after editing a tag's value, and I think I recall this is
somehow different now. Generall, I would not expect to enter edit mode
when I press either key, but I would expect that pressing any input key
when a cell is selected would enter edit mode and start with my input.
Usually it does, but it does not for "-" which is an application hotkey.
Those hotkeys should either be avoided or disabled when text input is
possible.

A porpos hotkeys: Ctrl+C does not copy selected text in the Info dock.
Instead, the application hotkey is triggered and a ton of XML ends in my
clipboard. When I want to copy an object's ID into an e-mail for
discussion reference, I always get that XML first, then undo paste, open
the context menu and click on Copy there. Local hotkeys are more
important then global hotkeys!

-- 
Yves Goergen "LonelyPixel" <nospam.list at unclassified.de>
Visit my web laboratory at http://beta.unclassified.de