Re: [Audacity-quality] Fw: Dropdown menu for the vertical ruler in waveform tracks

[Peter S. <pet...@ya...>]

>>1) For a start, as Paul says, may folk are these days used to right-clicking>>to get a dropdown/popup menu, it's quite common usage in apps.>
>As I have been saying.  But another convention (as I see in Gmail's Inbox for instance) is that mouse-over causes a down-pointing arrow to appear, which is >activated by left-click. 
Yes, but we are already using right-click to access popup/dropdown menus in other parts of Audacity - e.g. Timeline and Meter Toolbar



>Do you notice that I also use a right-hand column that tells you "zoom to fit" can also be done by shift-right-click? 
Yes I saw those but didn't try them - I find I can only remember a small handful of shortcuts (and I have four specials of my own)

Cheers,Peter.


Peter Sampson
Tel: +44 (0)1625 524 780

      From: Paul Licameli <pau...@gm...>
 To: Peter Sampson <pet...@ya...> 
Cc: Audacity Quality <aud...@li...> 
 Sent: Friday, July 31, 2015 5:09 PM
 Subject: Re: Fw: Dropdown menu for the vertical ruler in waveform tracks
   
Thanks for trying this!  inline answers.

On Fri, Jul 31, 2015 at 12:00 PM, Peter Sampson <pet...@ya...> wrote:

RESEND - as this didn't seem to get deliveredapologies if you get it twice
Peter.
Peter Sampson
Tel: +44 (0)1625 524 780

    ----- Forwarded Message -----
  From: Peter Sampson <pet...@ya...>
 To: Audacity Quality <aud...@li...>; Paul Licameli <pau...@gm...> 
Cc: Peter Sampson <pet...@ya...> 
 Sent: Friday, July 31, 2015 2:14 PM
 Subject: Dropdown menu for the vertical ruler in waveform tracks
   
Having the chance at last today to try some of Paul's latest changes(and thanks and well done to Gale for finally get the wx3 Windows builddone and posted) I must say that I am rather taken with this new dropdown menu available on right-click in the vertical ruler.
1) For a start, as Paul says, may folk are these days used to right-clickingto get a dropdown/popup menu, it's quite common usage in apps.

As I have been saying.  But another convention (as I see in Gmail's Inbox for instance) is that mouse-over causes a down-pointing arrow to appear, which is activated by left-click.

This could be done, with more work.
 

2) I was one of those folk who early on stumbled into the bear-trap of accidentallyclicking on the vertical ruler - wondering why my view had changed - and worse,having no ide of how to get my "proper" view back - and I know from past posts onthe forum and watching Mrs S. struggle that I am not alone in this..  The dropdownmenu makes it all clearer with its options and provides a discoverable way to get back to default "proper" view with its "Zoom to fit".

Do you notice that I also use a right-hand column that tells you "zoom to fit" can also be done by shift-right-click?  Though Leland says this generates warnings from wxWidgets that those strings don't make sense as accelerator keys.
 

3) This means that I am happy to support the old use of right-click in the verticalruler being replace by this new usage for the dropdown menu.  I think that it willlead to greater "discoverability.
(Aside: I'm one of those that thinks we should have more right-click dropdownsin Audacity e.g. the waveform and the TCP for starters.)


Should be easy to do in TCP.

For the waveform, I'd like it but I am not sure how the menu items should be organized.  That's a future project for somebody.
 
 




I do have a couple of small misgivings
a) Nomenclature:  I think the three "Zoom ..."  commands could easily be confusedwith the horizontal zoom commands - so I would prefer them to say "Vertical Zoom ..."for the avoidance of doubt and confusion.
b) When hovering over the Vertical Ruler the cursor changes to the magnifying glassto indicate zoom - but the right-click no longer is a (pure) zoom function.  So either we should change the hover cursor - or add some hover-text help - or even both.

But the cursor gives you the correct hint about what left-click will do.  It even changes from magnifier plus to minus if you press Shift.  Isn't it your expectation that cursor changes hint about left-mouse button actions?
 

c) I find it very disconcerting that the Linear/Logarithmic radio button in the dropdownmenu applies to the channel and not the track, the stereo pair.  Perhaps I'm beingfuddy-duddy here but I really don't think you should mix views like this in the same track.And note that the 3 zooms apply to the stereo track and not a particular channel.

Now that is just a mistake on my part.


 

Cheers,Peter.

Peter Sampson
Tel: +44 (0)1625 524 780