[Bf-funboard] 2.28 features

Ton Roosendaal bf-funboard@blender.org
Wed, 23 Jul 2003 00:37:36 +0200


Hi,

I've rewinded half of this feature, so it still shows both lamp and  
material icon, which work as before. No harm for our tutorials on the  
web!
What I kept was the automatic switch, when you select a lamp while  
seeing material buttons, it switches to lampbuttons, and viceversa.  
Please give it a try... at least in my workflow these editors belong  
close together.

-Ton-



On Tuesday, Jul 22, 2003, at 02:41 Europe/Amsterdam, Matt Ebb wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ton Roosendaal" <ton@blender.org>
> To: <bf-funboard@blender.org>
> Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 11:01 PM
> Subject: [Bf-funboard] 2.28 features
>
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> In the rush to get a 2.28 before Siggraph, I've copied a few features
>> from Tuhopuu. Which include:
>>
>> - the feature which automatic shows LampButtons or MaterialButtons  
>> when
>> you select an Object.
>
> I have to disagree with this one, as I mentioned to Ton earlier. I can
> understand the reasoning for it (makes things a little more
> context-sensitive), but I think it will cause way more problems than it
> solves, especially for new users.
>
> Firstly, it'll make all the tutorials and docs out of date. When a  
> newbie is
> doing a tutorial that involves lights, they'll look at the screen and  
> think
> "huh?? this version of Blender doesn't support lights!" since the light
> button only shows up if a light is already selected. I'm worried (and  
> S68
> seems to be as well) about the  extra 'support problems' this will  
> create,
> particularly over at elsyiun.com. It's also counter-intuitive to have  
> the
> button changing all the time. Especially for something as major as the
> buttons headers (which is the main 'control panel' of Blender), it's  
> best
> for things to remain stable, so the user can build an expectation of  
> the
> system and 'get to know it'. If things are changing around, it leads to
> confusion and a feeling that the user is not in control of the system.  
> See
> the remarkable UI failures of Microsoft's changing menus in Office..
>
> Secondly, it's not that logical. Perhaps if it doubled with  
> Editbuttons in
> some way to make some sort of generic context-sensitive 'edit an  
> object's
> properties' button, then it would make more sense, but sharing it with  
> the
> materialbuttons doesn't make much sense to me since they're quite  
> different
> functionality-wise.
>
> And last, unless there are definite improvements to changing things, I  
> think
> most UI changes that break 'backwards compatibility' (especially with  
> older
> tutorials) should be saved until there are many things, and it can all  
> be
> done in one big change. If we keep making changes in bits and pieces  
> in all
> the versions along the way, then you end up with a situation where the  
> UI is
> constantly changing, users must re-learn their old habits, tutorials  
> made
> along the way get out of date, and people have to try to remember what
> version has what little idiosyncracy when trying to answer questions in
> Q&A..
>
> Anyway that's my little annoying nitpick The rest of the 2.28 stuff  
> looks
> great, and I'm really looking forward to it. However for this one, I  
> think
> the number of disadvantages greatly outweigh the advantages.
>
> Matt
>
>
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------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
--
Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation ton@blender.org  
http://www.blender.org