[Bf-taskforce25] search-based workflow

[vekoon]

What about context lock? I thought about this some time ago. I concluded 
having an explicit context activation (i.e. click-focus) à la for 
instance after effects is not super usable as it introduces a kind of 
meta-modality, i.e. you have to "switch" to something before you can 
actually use it. But in some circumstances it can make sense to have a 
"focus" type of thing independent of cursor position (like in this case 
for expressions and maybe others).
My idea was to create a "lock context" functionality in which an editor 
is locked to capture the focus whatever the position of the mouse is. It 
could be a button on the header or such. It could even be made a 
non-exclusive type of thing so that you can lock the context to more 
than 1 editor and then which one actually has the focus is decided 
basing on cursor position and if cursor is in a non-locked editor you 
just pick the first or the larger of the locked ones.
This of course would have some kind of explicit visual feedback, like 
the border of the editor being of a different color depending if it's 
normal, locked or has focus, like it actually already happens in blender 
but should be more visible by default (like with high contrast colors).


Ton Roosendaal wrote, on 13/03/2009 15.21:
> Hi,
>
>   
>> The question again is about context - should it follow the
>> context of where the cursor currently is?
>>     
>
> Blender should allow any hotkey to activate any button in other  
> regions, so the search button in top bar gets immediate input even when  
> you don't move the mouse to it, similarly we can use that for the  
> properties of last-used-operators.
>
> -Ton-
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org    www.blender.org
> Blender Institute BV  Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam The Netherlands
>
> On 13 Mar, 2009, at 13:05, William Reynish wrote:
>
>   
>> Enso is a nice idea, in that it is completely non-modal, and works in
>> all cases. It could indeed be a nice way to use searching for
>> operators. The question again is about context - should it follow the
>> context of where the cursor currently is? This is what Blender does
>> now - hotkeys only respond to actions within the current editor, which
>> is where the cursor is.
>>
>> The problem with text-based input for Blender is that you might easily
>> lose track of where the cursor is, and the command you are calling
>> might suddenly not work because the cursor is moved into another
>> editor. Same issue exists of macros, as we discussed during Winter  
>> Camp.
>>
>> It may not be that big a problem, especially if the searches are
>> clear, and that you can instantly see in which context you are
>> performing the search.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> W
>>
>>
>> On 12 Mar, 2009, at 12:55 PM, Ton Roosendaal wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> Was googling around, and found this new startup co-founded by Aza
>>> (son-of) Raskin.
>>> http://humanized.com/enso/
>>>
>>> Entirely search based tools/actions. Even follows our concept "only
>>> use
>>> sticky modes while user actively does something".
>>>
>>> Their search tool works with holding CapsLock, probably they have a
>>> way
>>> to disable it?
>>>
>>> Another great post from Aza, it's very close to our work currently:
>>> http://humanized.com/weblog/2008/07/18/designing-without-modal- 
>>> overlays/
>>>
>>> And some of his work on Mozilla:
>>> http://humanized.com/weblog/2008/07/14/ubiquitous-interfaces-
>>> ubiquitous-functionality/
>>>
>>> -Ton-
>>>
>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 
>>> --
>>> Ton Roosendaal  Blender Foundation   ton at blender.org
>>> www.blender.org
>>> Blender Institute BV  Entrepotdok 57A  1018AD Amsterdam The
>>> Netherlands
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>
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