[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: Request for comment: snapping in kivio / flake
From:       Andrew Dorrell <andrew.dorrell () gmail ! com>
Date:       2009-09-17 4:56:45
Message-ID: 200909171456.45491.andrew.dorrell () gmail ! com
[Download RAW message or body]

Hi Jan,

Thanks for the responses.  I'll send some comments on separate ideas in  
separate mails so the message sizes remain managable.

On Thursday 17 September 2009 5:34:59 am jaham@gmx.net wrote:
> > 
> > 5. Objects should snap during a move or resize operation so as to:
> >     a. align any edge of the object being modified with and edge of
> > another object on the page
> 
> This does already work when using the othogonal snappig strategy.
> 

Well it doesn't quite work as I describe.  In particular, only the edges 
connected to the active point (geometry docker) of the object being moved is 
subject to snapping (see also bug 
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=206201).  Apparently this is by design - 
sorry...

>>     b. align the center of the object being modified with the center of
>>         another object on the page
>
>This is provided by the bounding box snapping strategy. The "hot position"
> of the shape has to be set to the center point. This can be accomplished
> from the geometry docker of the default tool or by middle mouse button
> click on the center point of the shape.

This means getting the snap you want can involve iterating between shifting 
the object and changing geometry settings - not too nice IMHO. 

What I'd like is snapping whenever *any* edge, or the center, of the object 
being moved is in alignment with another object.  At least I'd like to try it.  
I appreciate that there will be some cases where many possible snaps are 
possible.  Personally I'd prefer to try and find a heuristic for picking the 
right one than to continuously have to adjust parameters.  Just my personal 
preference.  Perhaps worth an experiment.

The other point I wanted to make was that I found the shear number of 
different snap strategies a little confronting and confusing.  I was not able 
to easily understand what each did - so my first response was to turn them all 
on and hope it would do what I wanted.  That didn't work so well ;-)

Naming of snap modes is an issue also (if one that is relatively easily 
fixed).  For example, to me the concept of an "orthogonal" snap strategy is 
not very clear.  It took me a while to work out why it was called that (I have 
a mathematical understanding of orthogonality).  I believe in the end you used 
this name because of orthogonal projection in drawing?  Even then it is not as 
obvious what it means as usually when I use this snap I'm not actually drawing 
an orthogonal projection.  Much clearer to me would have been  "Object" (snap 
to align with other objects).  But I might be missing something here.


_______________________________________________
koffice-devel mailing list
koffice-devel@kde.org
https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/koffice-devel
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]