[Pen-devel] more pie

[Michael G. <mdg...@cs...>]

Hello all,

Val and I had a discussion this weekend about the menus, and I wanted to 
share what we came up with to get some feedback.  Here's most of it:

1. To invoke the menu, user right-clicks anywhere on an object

2a. the cursor is warped to the center of the object
  - we move the cursor because there are two logical places for the menu to
    appear.  We want it to appear around the center of the selected 
object so
    that we can show the object without it obstructing the menu.  We 
want it to
    appear where the cursor is so that the same gesture (i.e. 
right-click move
    up and right) always selects the same action.
2b. the menu expands in an animated way
  - however the menu is completely responsive during the animation
2c. if the menu is off the edge then the screen slides to make it visible
  - the cursor slides with the menu so that it stays in the same logical 
spot.
    Again, this supports the correspondence between gestures and actions
  - something amusing should be in the background

3. The appearance of the menu
  - something like this:

         \   <->   /
          \       /
      foo  \     /  other
            \   /  action
               
      ------ obj -------
    
     toggle /   \    set
     state /     \  target
          /   X   \
         /         \

  - objects obscured by the menu should be either faded out, drawn with 
dashed
    lines (it's not clear the best way to do this), or both
  - the object in the center is drawn normally, above the menu
  - the entries themselves, and their positions and sizes are specified 
by the
    part.  I was thinking of an api where the designer specifies, for each
    entry, an action, an image, and a weight.  The weight determines the
    relative size of that entry.  For example, to get the following shape:

          |
          |
       --- ---
         / \
        /   \

    they could specify weights of 3, 3, 2, 2, and 2
  - I think we should have conventions for where things "should" go 
though, for
    example rotation is always on top, delete is always on the bottom or
    something.  Again, this helps muscle memory
  - One thing I'm a little worried about is that the menus have to be 
different
    for the editor and the game.
  - It's also not clear what to do with large objects (e.g. a plank that 
spans
    half the screen).
  - finally, it's not clear whether the inner and/or outer radii of the menu
    should be fixed, specified by the designer, or computed

4. Interaction with the menu
  - there's no buttons that the user has to hit exactly.  Anywhere they 
click is
    in one of the "wedges".  I think this will aid usability
  - as they move the cursor around the selected action is highlighted (e.g.
    drawn in blue).  We might make a little clicky sound when they cross the
    border
  - Left click selects an action from the menu, right click dismisses 
the menu
  - Some actions (e.g. rotation) may change the shape of an object, possibly
    causing it to intersect with another object.  We will always show 
the black
    object where the user has positioned it, but we will also have a faded
    object underneath that shows the closest legal position.  When the 
menu is
    dismissed, the gray object will be the actual one.

           - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
          | (Obstruction)  +---+        |
           - - - - - - - - |   | - - - -
                           |   |   /
                           |   |     \
                           |   | /   
                           | o |     /
                           | b | (gray object)
                           | j |   /
                           | e |
                           | c | /
                           | t |
                         / |   |
                           |   |
                       /   |   |
                           |   |
                     /    /|   |

    now that I think of it, this might be a good way to do the collision
    avoiding dragging as well.


That's enough for now.  I've checked this in in docs/menu as well.  
Thoughts?

--Mike