On Fri, 2003-07-25 at 22:27, David Neary wrote:

Hi all,

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=78730

It would be nice if the Ctrl modifier did for the move tool what it did for other tools and constrained movement to 22.5 degree directions. The feature needs doing. Who wants it?

The thing changed in 1.3 and now the Ctrl modifier is used to toggle the behaviour of the tool from pick to move current. So this may only mean using Shift for the constraint.

However this is a little inconsistent. I would suggest we go back to how 1.2 was in this particular tool and try to use Shift where Ctrl is being used in 1.3 (I have absolutely no idea how much work this is):

Selection tools: ---------------
no change (both Shift and Ctrl toggle the mode)

Zoom tool: ----------
use Shift to toggle in/out.

Move tool: ----------
use Shift to toggle pick/move current use Ctrl for movement constraint

Crop tool: ----------
use Shift to toggle crop/resize
perhaps use Ctrl for keeping either 1:1 aspect ratio or the aspec ratio of the whole image (new feature)

Transform tools: ----------------
no change

Flip tool:
----------
use Shift instead of Ctrl

Text tool: ----------
This is a little complicated. Currently if a text layer exists and is selected, one can click on a pixel that has text on it. Now the tool options change the text attributes. Clicking on it again brings up the edit window. Now let's see if this is better:

Selecting a text layer with the text tool active will automatically make any changes to the tool optins apply to the text layer. Clicking anywhere on the layer will bring up the edit dialog with the text loaded. A Shift modifier will toggle edit_current/new_text_layer behaviour. Setting default text tool parameters can be done on a non-text layer. I apologise Sven for thinking about this too late :/

Fill tool: ----------
There's currently no modifier to fill with patterns. Now that we have RGBA patterns and the feature is actually useful ;) it would be nice to have a similar toggle as the select tools. Shift to toggle BG fill and Ctrl to toggle pattern fill. The option dialog could have nice little buttons with a FG rectangle, BG rectangle and active pattern rectangle, just like the selection tools have.

Gradient tool: --------------
Shift could toggle the reverse gradient. Ctrl remains.

Clone, Pen, Pencil, Airbrush, Dodgeburn, Blursharpen, Smudge and Eraser: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Although Ctrl is used to toggle to picker tool, I'd leave it as it is, since Ctrl is used for constraints after shift is pressed.

Ink tool: -------------------
no change

*Important mental shift* ;) ===========================

One last thought - we got rid of Alt+ shortcuts, because alt is reserved for access keys (mnemonics). However in poptatoshop for example Alt is used as a toggle key (zoom in/out, clone tool's pick area/draw...). That could be an option too, so that the paint tools make more sense (Alt to toggle paint/pick color, Shift for lines,Ctrl for constraints).

Kinda late, but worth a thought?

cheers

On Sun, 27 Jul 2003 14:23:03 +0200, David Neary wrote:

Jakub Steiner wrote:

On Fri, 2003-07-25 at 22:27, David Neary wrote:

http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=78730

It would be nice if the Ctrl modifier did for the move tool what it did for other tools and constrained movement to 22.5 degree directions. The feature needs doing. Who wants it?

The thing changed in 1.3 and now the Ctrl modifier is used to toggle the behaviour of the tool from pick to move current. So this may only mean using Shift for the constraint.

However this is a little inconsistent. I would suggest we go back to how 1.2 was in this particular tool and try to use Shift where Ctrl is being used in 1.3 (I have absolutely no idea how much work this is):

[...]

How difficult would this be to do?

If it's not that difficult, what exactly needs to be done, and are people in agreement that this is a good idea?

It is not that difficult to do. The modifiers used for each tool are only referenced in a few places in the code: in the part of the tool code (for each tool) that uses the modifier, plus in the strings for the tool options dialogs.

The main problem seems to agree on what should be done. Personally, I like Jimmac's proposal. His comment about the Alt modifier is also interesting.

GimpCon2003 seems to be a good place and time to discuss this, agree on a consistent set of modifiers and key bindings, and implement the changes. If we agree on something, I think that the last part (implementation) could be done in about one hour. I volunteer for doing it, if I have CVS access there.

-Raphaël