[Merkaartor] Nodes not visible -> not selectable -> confusing

[Chris Browet]

On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 11:43, Toby Speight <T.M.Speight.90 at cantab.net>wrote:

> 0> In article <
> AANLkTilpfEEYiOyqZwXmAWv1iStSLgA2S2BOkHCGWfX1 at mail.gmail.com>,
> 0> Chris Browet <URL:mailto:cbro at semperpax.com> ("Chris") wrote:
>
> Chris> Apparently, the fact that, now, if nodes are not visible due to
> Chris> zoom, they are not selectable either, is confusing to many.  Do
> Chris> you think I should revert that?
>
> Well, I for one find it very useful to be able to zoom out until the nodes
> become unselectable (or to temporarily set their visibility threshold very
> small) in order to select lots of ways without accidentally picking up a
> few nodes.  So please don't just revert it without some means of being
> selective about selection.
>

There is also the "View-Show trackpoints" (that I should rename to "Nodes"
and that seems a bit buggy for now) to hide the nodes. I'll correct the
functionality so that you can avoid playing with "view node" threshold.

>
> I think there's probably a difference in the use cases between nodes
> that are part of one or more ways and nodes that stand alone - and of
> the former, users are probably more likely to want to select those with
> tags.  A solution that takes account of that is probably a winner.
>

This is handled. Nodes with tags (i.e. POI) are always selectable, whatever
the view threshold.

>
>
> Chris> Secondly, I still thinks that, when the zoom becomes quite
> Chris> large, the nodes clutter the map.  So, instead of a on/off
> Chris> switch depending on the zoom level, I'll probably adjust their
> Chris> sizes, the same way as roads.
>
> One of the great advantages of not drawing nodes when zoomed out a lot
> is the speedup in drawing busy regions - are you proposing to lose that?
>
> Not quite. I'd remove the manual threshold (you can still play with the
"Show trackpoints") and adjust the visual representation (i.e. size) of the
nodes depending on the zoom level. If nodes become invisible, I wouldn't
draw them so that the performance gain would stay.

Advantage:
- less cluttered map

Potential Disadvantages:
- tiny node representation at low zoom
- larger node representation at high zoom

- Chris -

P.S. to be clear, for me, low zoom means the earth, high zoom means my left
foot ;-)
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