10-17-2020, 05:17 PM
I agree that what you have described would be the smoothest workflow with using the stylus button to select, but it involves having to insert a lot of code that is likely to introduce bugs because it changes a lot of the touch processing code to know when to ignore what the user is doing due to the current state of things. There are all sorts of new situations that would have to be handled correctly:
1) If the user uses the stylus side button to select, draws a selection box, but there is nothing in the selection box, then I have to revert back to the previous tool immediately
2) If the user does select something, then I have to modify all of the code that would normally reset the tool when the stylus is released after using the side stylus button
3) If the user has selected annotations, but then changes the selection state through the layer dialog, for example, I have to ensure that if they clear the selection state, that I reset the tool back to what they were using before
4) If the user switches tools manually using the toolbar after having used the side stylus button to select something, but doesn't tap somewhere else to clear the selection which would then reset the tool, I have to reset the state back to normal so that the next time the user touches down on the page, it's going to process it normally
5) The normal code that is used to process a selection has to be ignored in the case that the user has tapped away after selecting annotations with the side stylus button, which means having to add code to not only ignore the touch down event, but also the move event, the pointer released event, any manipulation events that might be generated etc. This has to be handled in different ways for Windows and Android, as they have very different ways of processing touch interactions, which is likely to introduce bugs
That's a lot of work compared to me just inserting code to switch to the selection tool if the right stylus button is selected, but not reset back to the previous tool after they release. It's more tedious for the user, but right now, I'm going to have to start setting limits on what is going to be changed so that I get the update released sooner. Given that you can only tie one action to the side stylus button, I'm thinking that supporting gestures for swapping between selection and the previous tool is still going to be useful to users.
I didn't realize you were referring to the toolbar. The reason I do not change that icon is there is no text to accompany it like in the radial menu, and users get trained to look for specific text or images. If the stamp image is always changing at the top, this might throw some users off when they are quickly scanning to select the stamp tool. If the majority of people would prefer that I show the active stamp in the toolbar instead, that is not difficult for me to do.
I'll make a note to add a setting for controlling the arrow head length. Perhaps I'll configure this as a scaling factor that defaults to 1.0, and accepts values between 0.25 and 2 (I think anything outside that might start to look pretty ridiculous).
While combining the tools is a creative idea, it would be unintuitive to people I think, and would also be less performant, as drawing an arrow requires far more resources than drawing a line. This is probably not a huge deal though, unless users were drawing an extremely large number of arrows or lines.
While I certainly could combine the two, it would make quick placement of minimum size decrescendos more tedious, as you could no longer just tap. You'd have to tap, and then perform a small slide to the left to get it to flip, but not too much where it starts growing beyond the minimum size. Or are you suggesting I still leave both tools present, but allow them to be flipped if you drag it past the starting point? As far as centering it, while I agree that might make it easier to place the minimum size crescendo/decrescendo, it then makes it harder to position one that you want to increase in size. I just tried it out, and it feels more natural knowing that where I press down is the start of the crescendo, and then I drag to where I want it to end. If it was centered, I would have to guess at where the lines would meet, which would make accurate placement more difficult. If the majority of people would prefer it centered, I'm certainly open to making changes.
As far as the panning behavior, that was a request from users, because they said it was difficult to annotate at the bottom of the page with the old design, so I allow the page to be scrolled up past the bottom of the screen. I don't currently allow that for the top, as it would either make it difficult to lock the page back in its starting position. It would feel like the page is floating around if it didn't lock at least to the top of the screen.
The only other way to zoom that I support right now is Ctrl + Mouse wheel. The app is designed primarily for tablets, and I try to accommodate desktop users when possible. I can think about supporting other ways of zooming in the future that are more compatible with a mouse, such as having a zoom slider that appears in the annotation mode at the bottom right that is only visible when mouse movement is detected. If people would like having a zoom slider in general, I may consider adding one, but it just performs a center zoom on the screen, so that's not the easiest to use.
Thanks,
Mike
1) If the user uses the stylus side button to select, draws a selection box, but there is nothing in the selection box, then I have to revert back to the previous tool immediately
2) If the user does select something, then I have to modify all of the code that would normally reset the tool when the stylus is released after using the side stylus button
3) If the user has selected annotations, but then changes the selection state through the layer dialog, for example, I have to ensure that if they clear the selection state, that I reset the tool back to what they were using before
4) If the user switches tools manually using the toolbar after having used the side stylus button to select something, but doesn't tap somewhere else to clear the selection which would then reset the tool, I have to reset the state back to normal so that the next time the user touches down on the page, it's going to process it normally
5) The normal code that is used to process a selection has to be ignored in the case that the user has tapped away after selecting annotations with the side stylus button, which means having to add code to not only ignore the touch down event, but also the move event, the pointer released event, any manipulation events that might be generated etc. This has to be handled in different ways for Windows and Android, as they have very different ways of processing touch interactions, which is likely to introduce bugs
That's a lot of work compared to me just inserting code to switch to the selection tool if the right stylus button is selected, but not reset back to the previous tool after they release. It's more tedious for the user, but right now, I'm going to have to start setting limits on what is going to be changed so that I get the update released sooner. Given that you can only tie one action to the side stylus button, I'm thinking that supporting gestures for swapping between selection and the previous tool is still going to be useful to users.
I didn't realize you were referring to the toolbar. The reason I do not change that icon is there is no text to accompany it like in the radial menu, and users get trained to look for specific text or images. If the stamp image is always changing at the top, this might throw some users off when they are quickly scanning to select the stamp tool. If the majority of people would prefer that I show the active stamp in the toolbar instead, that is not difficult for me to do.
I'll make a note to add a setting for controlling the arrow head length. Perhaps I'll configure this as a scaling factor that defaults to 1.0, and accepts values between 0.25 and 2 (I think anything outside that might start to look pretty ridiculous).
While combining the tools is a creative idea, it would be unintuitive to people I think, and would also be less performant, as drawing an arrow requires far more resources than drawing a line. This is probably not a huge deal though, unless users were drawing an extremely large number of arrows or lines.
While I certainly could combine the two, it would make quick placement of minimum size decrescendos more tedious, as you could no longer just tap. You'd have to tap, and then perform a small slide to the left to get it to flip, but not too much where it starts growing beyond the minimum size. Or are you suggesting I still leave both tools present, but allow them to be flipped if you drag it past the starting point? As far as centering it, while I agree that might make it easier to place the minimum size crescendo/decrescendo, it then makes it harder to position one that you want to increase in size. I just tried it out, and it feels more natural knowing that where I press down is the start of the crescendo, and then I drag to where I want it to end. If it was centered, I would have to guess at where the lines would meet, which would make accurate placement more difficult. If the majority of people would prefer it centered, I'm certainly open to making changes.
As far as the panning behavior, that was a request from users, because they said it was difficult to annotate at the bottom of the page with the old design, so I allow the page to be scrolled up past the bottom of the screen. I don't currently allow that for the top, as it would either make it difficult to lock the page back in its starting position. It would feel like the page is floating around if it didn't lock at least to the top of the screen.
The only other way to zoom that I support right now is Ctrl + Mouse wheel. The app is designed primarily for tablets, and I try to accommodate desktop users when possible. I can think about supporting other ways of zooming in the future that are more compatible with a mouse, such as having a zoom slider that appears in the annotation mode at the bottom right that is only visible when mouse movement is detected. If people would like having a zoom slider in general, I may consider adding one, but it just performs a center zoom on the screen, so that's not the easiest to use.
Thanks,
Mike