[Bf-funboard] modal-tool info-and-hotkeys feedback idea

[Campbell Barton]

On Sat, Jul 6, 2013 at 9:23 AM, David Jeske <davidj at gmail.com> wrote:
> One of the big discoverability challenge users run into is figuring out
> what "magic keys" affect a modal tool.
>
> Here is a quick idea mock-up to solve this and also provide modal action
> information next to the cursor... The idea is to make the info not seem
> "active", because you obviously can't be clicking on things while also
> doing a modal drag. I'm not an artist, so this is mostly to explain the
> concept..
>
> http://www.pasteall.org/pic/54973
>
> There are a bunch of ways this could be used....
>
> - Showing it could be a global mode/preference. Turn it on, and it appears
> for every action. Turn it off and it never shows.
>
> - F6 could toggle it for this action... want to figure out what modal
> hotkeys the action has? start it and hit F6..
>
> Thoughts?

Agree some automatic way to show modal keymaps would be really nice,
at the moment some operators do this in the header but its very clunky
(both from developer and user perspective).

I'm not so keen on having a popup for this though, maybe some utility
function that displays keys in the header? (realize this is limited
too, header only has so much space), but once there is some
generalized solution we can move it around in the UI if we like (or
have as an option as you say).

I think a problem with getting this working usefully will be to avoid
annoying enumeration over every key in a way that dosn't clog up the
interface,
Ctrl+/-, numpad+/-, mousewheel, up/down --- for example are often all
used for the same purpose and having these fill up the UI isn't so
nice.