[Bf-funboard] Questions re: mouse cursor in modal functions

[Campbell Barton]

On Sun, Aug 17, 2014 at 4:48 PM, Jude Jackson <syzygy6 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey folks, this is just a question, maybe it will open things up for
> discussion or at least solidify the concept, but I've thought it was odd
> that in certain mouse-movement-based modal function, the cursor remains on
> screen and moves during the function, even if the cursor itself is not
> really relevant and could just disappear.
>
> For example: in rotating the 3D view, the operation does not account for
> the location of the 3D cursor, just its motion (I'm not at my computer to
> confirm right now (or for a couple more weeks), but I think you can even
> continue to rotate the 3D view by dragging the mouse further than the edge
> of the screen).
>
> Another example: scaling/rotating an object in 3D view actually *does* use
> the mouse cursor (the function has something to do with the distance of the
> cursor from the origin of the object I think), but it results in an awkward
> scenario where the scale of the operation is set by the distance of the
> cursor from the origin of the object (I assume it sets that scale to 1).
> This system isn't wrong per se, but it is strange for various reasons.
>
> One recent example: Pie menus are basically a gestural input at their best,
> which I great. I understand that, as-implemented, it makes sense to use the
> cursor for selecting options if you don't know the appropriate gesture. But
> when it is working as a gestural input, it seem strange that it would use
> the global mouse cursor, because the user isn't trying to point at
> something.
>
>
> Now, I want to clarify that I don't think that the current paradigm is
> wrong. It's consistent, in fact, which is a strong foundation for UX
> design. But, I think it's worth examining the possibility of visualizing
> non-pointer-based mouse inputs without the cursor, and figuring out whether
> it's worth doing and how it would be done if it is.
>
> Cheers
> _______________________________________________
> Bf-funboard mailing list
> Bf-funboard at blender.org
> http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-funboard



-- 
- Campbell