[Bf-funboard] LMB, RMB... Re: shift-F4 and Append ideas

[Luke Wenke]

Fweeb / ph:
> Just to put my two cents into this conversation: I, for one, totally
> agree with this.  If a component of blender (like, for instance, the
> append feature) has a choice between being consistant with blender or
> being consistant with the OS, I definitely vote for blender consistancy.

For the append feature to be consistent with blender you wouldn't be able to
use the LMB to select anything. The RMB would be used to select one item,
deselecting the rest (this is what happens with vertices, 3D objects,
keyframes, IPO's, etc). To select multiple items while being consistent with
most other areas of Blender you'd use shift-RMB. For the open blender file
feature to be consistent with the suggested changes to append, you'd no
longer be able to use LMB to choose your file. You'd use the RMB. And unless
there is some reason for it, you wouldn't be able to select multiple files
to open.
I think to be more consistent, the same mouse button should be used to
select panels, tabs, materials/textures in dropdown menus, etc - as the
mouse button to select other items. i.e. they should both be LMB. I don't
see how basically reversing the buttons in the 3D window, etc, would make
much of a difference as far as efficiency goes... perhaps it would even make
a lot of people work faster - they would be able to use the LMB to select
things like they do in every single other program.
I'd like the LMB to work a bit differently to how the RMB works though...
see:
http://www.blender.org/pipermail/bf-funboard/2004-January/001711.html

> This is for two reasons.  1) To put it simply, the blender way is
> smarter and faster and puts less physical strain on me.  Granted, there
> is a cost of minor mental strain to initially learn the blender way, but
> the dividends are worth it.

In many parts of blender, you'd use the RMB a lot (3D window, IPO window,
etc)... is it really easier to press the RMB than the LMB? If it is, that
suggests that the RMB should be used to click on the buttons and menus, etc.
If there is no difference in ease between the LMB and RMB then for the sake
of internal and OS consistency, the LMB should be used to select things. (As
said earlier, for many things - panels, tabs, textures/materials, etc, you
use LMB to select things)

> 2) It's much easier, from a technical and
> user-adjustment standpoint, to modify one piece of blender to match the
> rest versus modifying all of blender to match the OS.

I'm talking about mouse buttons at the moment... it doesn't have to be an
all-or-nothing thing where either Blender totally matches the OS it is
currently on or it makes no effort to go towards that.

> 1) It's speed.  Blender is by far one of the (if not *the*)
> most responsive and speedy modeling tools out there.  2) It's size.  Try
> and find another app with blender's capabilities that's as small and
> compact, I dare you.  3) I can comfortably use blender from any machine
> that will run it without modification.  This is extremely helpful for
> assisting newbs and running demos.

I don't think making the changes to mouse buttons use would affect 1, 2 or
3. BTW, I'm talking about permanent changes rather than custom hotkeys, etc.
- Luke.