popup menu and other suggestions
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Thanks so much Marko for all your hard work.
Console is great and getting better! b339 is
a real improvement. I like the scrollbar changes. (I may actually use a buffer now!) I did notice a possible problem with scrolling and alpha transparency I believe, but I haven't reproduced it. If I see it again, I'll post about it.
Now, to the suggestions. I tend to forget Console has certain features and if they were in the popup menu I think it would be easier to remember (and discover for new users). (Apologies in advance if these have already been discussed here.) Some ideas:
1) Add "Always on top" menu item, checked or unchecked (can still do L-button dbl-click too).
Adds the functionality to the menu and also serves as an indicator of the current state of the setting.
2) Add Copy item. Enable when user has done selected a region (i.e. can r-click inside region to open popup menu and select Copy, in addition to just left-clicking inside region to copy). May want to emulate cmd and have Enter do a Copy when region is selected too.
3) Add Paste item. Enabled when text in clipboard, equivalent of shift+right-click.
4) Add Mark item - maybe. It would function as shift+left click to start defining select region. User can then right-click to bring up popup and select Copy (or left-click inside region).
5) list of console.xml files to choose from
I've been fiddling with different visual styles that console is capable of displaying and it occurred to me that it'd be neat to be able to right-click and reload a particular xml file - one for alpha transparent console, one for a console with a different background image, etc. You could populate the menu with a list of xml files found in the console.exe directory:
------------------
Reload Settings for:
console.xml
console-big.xml
console-small.xml
or as a submenu off Reload Settings.
Oh, and if you want some crazy ideas:
- color gradient in scrollbar like titlebar
- color setting for scrollbar thumbwheel
- cursor ideas:
- rotating line (like sequence of: | / - \ | / - | )
- sweeping line ( |... .|.. ..|. ...| ..|. etc.)
(the 'cylon' cursor...)
- online help (hit F1, bring up window with basics from the Readme file, possibly console xml tag reference)
That should be enough for now, eh? ;)
Thanks again Marko!
Rob
Wow! You've thought about this a lot :-) Let me answer by points:
1), 2), 3) - good idea
4) seems a bit clumsy, I'll have to see how it works (place a cursor, right-click, choose the entry, drag, click to stop the drag instead of just left-clicking and dragging)
5) another good idea... I could populate a submenu with .xml files from the startup directory (or maybe config directory?)
6) colored gradients in scrollbars - I'm limited by the API here... I'd have to implement scrollbar skinning for this, and there are far better programs for that (WindowBlinds, for example :-)
7) rotating line - can be added, sweeping line - already there, look for 'vertical line' style
8) online help - opening Readme file in the text editor seems like a good solution :)
Glad you liked some of them!
4) Yeah, kinda clumsy, but more like cmd.exe - which isn't necessarily worth emulating, but it might help new users got oriented. (I'd be tempted to put a dialog box in that pops up when they select Mark that says "Another way to select regions is by ..." with a "Don't show this message again" checkbox.) Wouldn't miss it if you didn't implement it, but it seemed worth mentioning for completeness too.
5) I assumed it would list the xml's in the startup directory, though having a config directory isn't a bad idea - especially if you put it outside the console dir tree so it doesn't get overwritten when installing new builds. (If you know Emacs, it's like having a site-lisp dir to hold your customizations and the installed lisp dir(s) can change when you install new versions but site-lisp stays safe.)
(Or perhaps list both - those in the startup directory since they'll be there after installing and a config dir might not be, and list those in a config directory if it's set up (environment variable? HOME?) Group them:
Load Settings->
console.xml
console-big.xml
console-small.xml
------------------
my-small-console.xml
my-big-console.xml
startup ones first, then seperator, then config dir ones.
6) You're right, not worth it if it can be skinned by WB. I may have to look at WB again. (I assume that's still the best/most stable skinner out there?)
7) Dang - missed the vertical line style. Thanks.
8) :) Yeah, just thought "Help" on the popup menu would be a warm-and-fuzzy for new users, looking more like 'regular apps' - even if all it does is invoke the defined shell app on the text file.
Thanks again - off to play with different Console styles...
(Drat - gotta learn proper HTML tags so that menu will come out right, not all squished up on the left side.)
Just to clarify, "Load Settings" menu item on popup menu I mention above would then display a submenu with the other items listed. I wasn't intending all of them on the main popup.