[Bf-committers] Proposal about headers menu shortcuts

[Leif Andersen]

I agree with most of the stuff listed here, although:


> One has to:
> - look at the 2.49 toolptip of that menu, and hope it isn't changed, OR
> - lookup in the super slow keymap editor and go crazy if he doesn't find
> the exact name soon
> - ask friends/forums/IRC -> stupid, and time sink for a sigle command
> - a newcomer might not know about 2.4, or keymap editor
> - even if he finds out, it is difficult to find again, hence to fix in
> mind.
>

There's actually one other way.  Hit space, and start trying to type in the
name of the operator, and it will do a search for you, giving you the key
sequence to hit for that operator.  Although I do admit that that also has
many problems:

1.  You need to know the name of the operator (which isn't always clear).
2.  You can't change the key bindings for the operator.

~Leif Andersen

----------
Searching a DAG: http://xkcd.com/761/


On Fri, Jul 30, 2010 at 10:41, mindrones <mindrones at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I forgot to add, usually menus don't have 16 options, but 3, 4, 5...
>
> It would be very easy to switch options, because we can use 4 fingers
> like on a piano on the 1, 2, 3, 4 keys and easily move the hand to do 5,
> 6, 7.
>
> Regards,
> Luca
>
>
> On 7/30/2010 8:39 AM, mindrones wrote:
>  > Hi,
>  >
>  > sorry for the very long mail, it's not easy to explain this stuff in a
>  > single word :)
>  >
>  >
>  > Introduction
>  > =================================================
>  >
>  > What bugs me about 2.5x series is that we don't expose shortcuts in the
>  > headers menu anymore.
>  >
>  > This makes it difficult to find a shortcut when you forget, especially
>  > for newcomers.
>  >
>  > Example
>  > ----------------------------------
>  >
>  > To know the shortcut of the pivot point menu in the 3d view, one simply
>  > doesn't know.
>  >
>  > Problems
>  > ----------------------------------
>  >
>  > One has to:
>  > - look at the 2.49 toolptip of that menu, and hope it isn't changed, OR
>  > - lookup in the super slow keymap editor and go crazy if he doesn't find
>  > the exact name soon
>  > - ask friends/forums/IRC ->  stupid, and time sink for a sigle command
>  > - a newcomer might not know about 2.4, or keymap editor
>  > - even if he finds out, it is difficult to find again, hence to fix
> in mind.
>  >
>  > - the bad thing also for experienced users is that we have one shortcut
>  > for each command to remember.
>  >
>  >
>  > Worse example: finally you find out but the shortcuts are a mess
>  > --------------------------------------------------------------------
>  >
>  > Lately I've been doing a bug report and tried many windows types to see
>  > differences in the bug behaviour, pressing shift-F2, shift-F3, shift-F4,
>  > lots of times.
>  >
>  > I realized it was pretty much a mess, this is what we have now:
>  >
>  > http://www.mindrones.com/blender/ideas/windowtype_shortcuts.jpg
>  >
>  > ...which IMHO is really bad for memorization.
>  >
>  > New problems
>  > ----------------------------------
>  >
>  > - Ok, once you know it, eh... you know it, but it's not easy to build a
>  > mental scheme of that.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > Proposal
>  > =================================================
>  >
>  > These are some solutions that came to my mind.
>  >
>  > 1)
>  >
>  > Sort them numerically (3Dview = shift-F1, shift-F2 = timeline, etc).
>  >
>  > Problem is that many aren't numeric (example, the pivot point use ".",
>  > "," etc)
>  >
>  > 2)
>  >
>  > Another approach could be showing this shortcuts in the menu, but again
>  > I think many would be against for eye-candy.
>  >
>  >
>  > 3) THE ACTUAL PROPOSAL
>  >
>  > I propose to use a unique shortcut to open the headers menu, followed by
>  > a number.
>  >
>  > For example for the window type it would be good "<" because it's free
>  > and it is in a similar position of the button itself (bottom-left).
>  >
>  > (exception: in the text editor we need to use "<" but could override
>  > this as we have for the ctrl-arrows global command which is overridden
>  > by the text command "skip words")
>  >
>  > But we have 16 views, more then 10, so?
>  >
>  > With layers we do
>  >
>  > - layer 1  = M,1
>  > - layer 2  = M,2
>  > - ....
>  > - layer 10 = M,0
>  >
>  > and after 10,
>  >
>  > - layer 11 = M ->  ALT,1
>  > - layer 12 = M ->  ALT,2
>  > - etc...
>  >
>  > For the Window type menu we could do:
>  >
>  > - option 1  =<   ->  1
>  > - option 2  =<   ->  2
>  >
>  > and after 10,
>  >
>  > - option 11  =<   ->  alt,2
>  > - option 12  =<   ->  alt,2
>  > - etc....
>  >
>  > For easier situations like pivots, we can do:
>  >
>  > - option 1  = .  ->  1
>  > - option 2  = .  ->  2
>  > - etc.... (no need to use alt)
>  >
>  > Easy.
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > Benefits
>  > =================================================
>  >
>  > Consistency with popup menus
>  > ----------------------------------
>  >
>  > If this egst accepted, this could be applied to all menus in the headers
>  > everywhere, it would be consistent with the popup menus and would be
>  > flexible because if a new option appears or get removed, this is easy to
>  > find and rebuild in mind.
>  >
>  > Think about Remove double in 2.4x: it was "W, 6" and now it is "W,4": it
>  > has been quite easy to learn again because there was a simple rule, we
>  > only had to remember the new number.
>  >
>  >
>  > Save a lot of shortcuts
>  > ----------------------------------
>  >
>  > And also, this would save a lot of shortcuts, that could be reused
>  > elsewhere.
>  >
>  > If for example we use "." to open the pivot menu, we are free to use ","
>  > and the remaining ones to do something else.
>  >
>  > In the window type example: if we use "<" we free all the "shift-Fx
>  > "commands for something else.
>  >
>  >
>  > Easy to memorize
>  > ----------------------------------
>  >
>  > First off, we would have just one shortcut to remember for pivots,
>  > window types, etc...
>  >
>  > If you're going answer "numbers are cold", or so, if the choice is
>  > non-destructive then if one remembers the number wrong he can just keep
>  > the fingers on the keyboard and try a new number.
>  >
>  > This helps a lot memorizing, because usually you learn by mistakes.
>  >
>  > Examples:
>  >
>  > - I want the cursor to be the pivot
>  >     - press ".", followed by 1
>  >     - ack, it's not what I wanted
>  >     - easy,  press 2
>  >
>  > - I want the window type to be "timeline"
>  >     - press "<", followed by 1
>  >     - ack, it's not what I wanted
>  >     - easy,  press 2
>  >
>  > =================================================
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>  > Many thanks for your time reading this :)
>  >
>  > Regards,
>  > Luca
>  >
>  > _____________________________
>  >
>  > http://www.mindrones.com
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>  >
>
>
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>
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