Re: [Tuxpaint-users] Bugs [brush spacing (and also accessibility)]

[Pere P. i C. <per...@gm...>]

El dg. 09 de 01 de 2022 a les 22:49 -0800, en/na Bill Kendrick va escriure:
> On Sun, Jan 09, 2022 at 09:27:31AM -0800, Anat Caspi wrote:
> <snip>
> > I am a parent of a kiddo who uses Tux a LOT. I'm not part of the
> > development team.
> 
> Thanks for your feedback, nonetheless, Anat.
> 
> 
> > It's hard to say this because obviously your message comes from a well
> > intended place, but your message would be better received if you were not
> > to put things in these terms of 'correct' versus 'incorrect.'  You are
> > stating your *opinion*.
> > 
> > The BRUSHES as they are designed, are actually reflective of what a 'shaped
> > brush' would actually do in physical (non digital) spaces. That is, if you
> > were to take a star-shaped brush with paint and follow a continuous
> > trajectory across a canvas- you would actually produce the kind of visual
> > features that Tux Paint creates. So this is actually following a very
> > important rule in USABILITY- which is
> > Jakob Nielsen’s second usability heuristic, which highlights the importance
> > of matching between the system and the real world.
> 
> You make a good point that Tux Paint is, in a sense, mimicking a real
> brush here (just one that is, somehow, star-shaped), however that
> wasn't necessarily _intended_.  For some of the distinct shapes, and
> especially the animated animal ones (so far, cat and squirrel),
> I definitely intended for them to be spaced apart, so they do not
> smear together.
> 
> For a shape like the star, which could be used both as a star-stamping
> tool, I see why one would expect it to leave a trail of distinct stars.
> 
> (Imaging you have a circular rubberstamp that you roll along a
> piece of paper, versus a brush that you drag.)
> 
> However, I can see a "use" for being able to paint a smeared star
> shape, to create an artistic effect.  I think perhaps an option to
> enable/disable or adjust spacing might be useful...

And maybe also an option to increase/decrease the size of the brush?

 
> 
> 
> > So as a parent, I actually appreciate the way things are currently designed
> > because it gives my child (who uses the system exclusively as an eye-gaze,
> > manipulating everything with pupil tracking technology) an idea of the
> > manifestation of what she would produce with a physical brush which she is
> > not able to use on her own.
> > 
> > That said, and in order to give your *opinion* a voice as well, maybe the
> > developers want to consider a new option or parameter for the brush
> > elements which would allow users to vary the spacing between the placement
> > of the shape as a continuous brush stroke is produced by the shape brushes.
> > However, there is always a trade off between creating clear, cognitively
> > comfortable interfaces and adding new options and features.
> > 
> > This is a design decision that could maybe be pushed off  to the 'tux paint
> > configuration' space, rather than the main UI.
> 
> ...and it could be something that one can disable, to 'simplify'
> Tux Paint (much like the shape and stamps tools can be simplified).
> 
> 
> > Happy new year to all, and thanks to the Tux Paint team for supporting this
> > community!
> 
> Thanks, you too!
> 
> 
> > Anat
> > 
> > p.s. a plug again for two usability issues that persisted even in the new
> > release: 1) increase size of keyboard, or present the ability to change to
> > a different system keyboard- it is impossible to use in the eye gaze
> > context,
> 
> Hrm, as of 0.9.25, Tux Paint should be providing a larger OSK, if the
> window/screen size is large enough.  For example, I see that in a
> 1024x768 window, the OSK keys are the same size as the other Tux Paint
> UI buttons.  (That is, 48x48 for the smaller square ones; the whole
> keyboard taking up 720 pixels across, or about 86% of the 832px-wide
> canvas that I get.)
> 
> However, in 800x600 size (the default), the OSK is considerably smaller,
> percentage-wise.  It's 360 pixels wide (24x24 buttons), out of the
> 608px-wide canvas -- so only about 59%.
> 
> It sounds as though we need to think about this a bit more
> (allowing more in-between sizes, not shrinking way down to 24px wide,
> which would only really be necessary in a 640px-wide window).
> 
> I've opened a ticket.  Thanks!
> (https://sourceforge.net/p/tuxpaint/feature-requests/212/)

Will look into it, lets clarify a couple of things:

If possible, the OnScreen Keyboard should ideally have the same buttonsize 
as the UI, if not, then should have the biggest buttonsize that fits on 
the canvas.

It should also be possible to call an external keyboard, IIRC the Android build 
does this by using the "system" keyword for the onscreen-keyboard-layout parameter 
maybe we could reserve words for dasher or any other input system?
Or maybe just call the keyboard program as like is done with printing?

Is the above correct?, Anything else to consider?



> 
> 
> > 2) provide option for larger buttons in the right and left panels-
> > again difficult to maneuver small feature size with eye tracking.
> 
> This was added in Tux Paint 0.9.26.  (You can see a screenshot at
> https://tuxpaint.org/latest/tuxpaint-0.9.26-press-release.php)
> 
> Note that larger buttons will cause a smaller canvas size, for the
> same-sized window, and therefore a higher chance of the OSK buttons
> (once we get them to resize more _optimally_, rather than just
> sometimes doubling in size) not having enough room.
> 
> Please let me know whether the new button size (and color rows)
> options help!  I was extremely excited by the massive amount of work
> done for that (mostly, if not entirely, by Pere), as it helps not just
> users who have reduced eyesight, or need eyegaze trackers, but also
> just generally... it helps people using Tux Paint with the
> very-high-DPI displays that computers and mobile devices all seem to
> have. :)

Well, there was demand for it, 
https://sourceforge.net/p/tuxpaint/feature-requests/193/

I could never had been able to do this without having Tux Paint in 
the first place ;) , and there was already support for more than 
one color rows before I looked at it, I just had to expose it to outside.



> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> -bill!



Happy new year everybody
Pere