optimal defaults... Re: [Bf-funboard] buttons window icons

[Luke Wenke]

> This discussion is obsolete...
Hi,
My main point is that for many reasons I think it is better if all the
relevant group icons (for the regular groups, not python stuff) are shown at
once as blender's default than the current setup in 2.29. Of course, blender
would still have the ability to have a hierarchy of icons that you can use
to switch between groups of icons...

> What is written below can be done, or all 'sub groups' in one row, etc
> etc. You can even duplicate subgroups or panels... it can be icons,
> pulldowns, or a mix.
My ideas also involved the icons working like tabs (like in tuhopuu 2.28 -
see my mock-up), having alternating background colours for icons depending
on their group, and having icons disappear if they aren't currently
relevant. (That last bit could be a bit problematic)

> Still don't know the most
> optimal configuration... and maybe there just is no, just opinions.
Well the problem is how to measure how "optimal" a configuration is. Perhaps
the main concern is productivity. The amount of header space involved would
also be related to productivity... it is related to how much you have to
move the mouse and how flexible the layouts can be. (Long headers are
inconvient if the window is small) How quickly a user can get their bearings
and find an icon is related to productivity....  my idea involve the groups
being coloured in alternating colours so it would let the user quickly find
an icon even if there are many of them. I made sure that there are never
more than 4 items in a group so that it is easy to find icons that are
within a group. After a while a user would subconsciously memorize the
position of the icon in its group, and the position of the group amongst the
other groups (e.g. 2nd icon, 3rd group) If they are able to do that, that
would allow them to be more productive than if they had to manually search
for a picture within a series of icons. Having a single series of icons (in
logical groups of 2-4 though) would also work well with my mousewheel
idea... basically you move the mousewheel one notch to get to next or
previous group (and it would wrap around). It could be alt-mousewheel if you
wanted to prevent accidents and not conflict with the existing hotkeys.

> Of course the setup we'll use in the first release (or for the manual)
> will be based at feedback I get. Whether or not, and how, it's user
> configurable is a nice issue for later.
Well so far some people don't like the idea of having to click 2 icons when
they previously clicked 1.... perhaps some others on the various
messageboards will have have a similar reaction when 2.30 is released.
Some might point out that the new icon setting is less cluttered and more
logical than 2.28, but 2.28 isn't necessarily the best single-level
alternative.
(The number of icons can be reduced from 14 to 11 or maybe 10, be separated
into logical coloured groups [to get your bearings very quickly] and have
tabs, etc....)
http://members.ozemail.com.au/~wenke/blender/coloured-buttons2.gif

- Luke.