[OSM-talk] [josm-dev] JOSM and 0.5 (was: Does potlatch make it too easy for people to unintentionally screw things up?)

[Rick Collins]

At 09:07 AM 10/13/2007, you wrote:
>My remaining comments on the latest modeless version I've used relates
>to the behaviour of delete:
>
>1. Delete is still a mode, even though for most normal use it doesn't
>need to be. I would suggest a context-sensitive delete tool that works
>as follows:
>
>Click delete with nothing selected: Delete mode activates as before.
>Visual feedback on toolbar (and mouse cursor) provides user with
>enough clues as to mode. Exit mode by reactivating draw mode.
>
>Click delete with something selected: Delete the selection without
>changing mode.

There may be some history to this discussion that I am not aware of, 
but here is an idea.  How about not using a mode for delete at all 
and using the delete key?  You can click or select at will and when 
you press the delete key all selected items are deleted?  Or if you 
want, perhaps the delete key can be used to go in and out of the delete mode.

To be honest, there is little about either the old or the new API 
that bugs me except for mouse movements across the screen.  That 
means every time I have to go to the toolbar to change the mode of 
the mouse, it is a "major" movement and a distraction from the actual 
work I am doing.  Maybe it is because I mouse with my left hand (even 
though I am right handed, one of the ways I deal with tendonitis) so 
my right hand is free for keyboarding without having to move my hand 
off the mouse.

These are the types of considerations that make a tool 
facile.  Minimize cursor movement as well as minimizing the frequency 
of mode changes.  There are several actions I seem to use a lot that 
require me to go to the toolbar several times.  Once I think of a 
better way to do them, I will suggest some changes to the new API.


>* Sometimes you'll want to delete a node which is close enough to a
>way that it's not clear whether it belongs to that way. Examples would
>be place nodes, petrol stations and the like. As a mapper, when trying
>to delete unwanted nodes of this kind, I only want to do so if the
>nodes are not additionally required for a way, and I value the
>delete-protection as a clue that tells me that I should actually be
>deleting only selected attributes.

Why is this a problem?  If you need to see the separation, can't you 
just zoom in with a twist of the scroll wheel, see what you need and 
then twist the scroll wheel to zoom back out?  I find I am doing this 
often and have gotten quite used to it.  In fact, I find I am 
starting to try to do this on web pages in my browser where, of 
course, it doesn't work!