[Sugar-devel] seeking feedback on sketch of a new color selector

[Eben Eliason]

On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 12:52 PM, Walter Bender <walter.bender at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 12:39 PM, Gary C Martin <gary at garycmartin.com> wrote:
>> Hi Walter/Simon,
>>
>> On 7 Dec 2009, at 10:37, Simon Schampijer wrote:
>>
>>> On 12/06/2009 11:05 PM, Walter Bender wrote:
>>>> On Sun, Dec 6, 2009 at 8:54 PM, Simon Schampijer<simon at schampijer.de>  wrote:
>>>>> A few questions:
>>>>> - in the Feature page you mention the 'random selector', is this option
>>>>> still available in the latest design?
>>>>
>>>> This is still in the new design in that I didn't remove it from the
>>>> code. (If you click on the central XO icon, you get a random color as
>>>> before.) It is a decision I leave to the design team.
>>>
>>> Ok. Maybe the design team want to comment if they think that the random
>>> functionality is a good one to have.
>>
>> Sorry, not quite following the 'random functionality' comment. Just to check, my understanding that 'forwards' and 'backwards' are hooked up to change a seed value used for a random calculation of the fill/stroke colour choices (an almost infinitely large carousel of random choices, left or right). Where the buttons act something like the below image to maintain the current behaviour where clicking the large Xo icon still progresses forward:
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>> --Gary
>>
>
> Just to bring clarity to what I have implemented so far:
>
> (1) clicking on the left xo icon or the < icon causes the color pair
> to cycle to the "previous" color pair in the list of colors found in
> xocolor.py
> (2) clicking on the right xo icon or the > icon causes the color pair
> to cycle to the "next" color pair in the list of colors found in
> xocolor.py
> (3) clicking on the large xo icon causes a random color pair to be
> selected from the list in xocolor.py and resets the index used in #1
> and #2. (Essentially the same as the present behavior).
>
> There is also a "hidden" button (a temporary kludge) to undo (useful
> for undoing the random selection). The intention is to associate a key
> (Ctrl-z) to the undo function.
>
> Of course, you can still back out of the whole thing by canceling the
> changes in the manner currently supported: hitting x instead of ✓ on
> the panel.

Yeah, I wouldn't place too much home in an undo shortcut being
discovered, but you're right about the ability to cancel in the
settings panel. The same is not true, of course, on first start.

> Comments on the above:
>
> (a) The order of the colors in xocolor.py is reason to cycle through.
> If you get a close approximation from random, you can fine-tune your
> selection by searching through adjacent colors.

Perhaps if we remove the random function, we could support
press-and-hold to cycle more quickly through the color space. I do see
the arguments for retaining random, of course, so maybe the
implementation you have is the right one.

> (b) I don't know how to get icons that can both be recolored and use
> accelerator keys, hence the kludge above. For accessibility purposes,
> it would be nice to add short-cuts to all the buttons in the control
> panel.
> (c) Gary, I tried the stacked icons vs running them in a row. The
> stacked icons didn't do it for me (or Eben, as I recall). The current
> configuration is xo < XO > xo.

Yeah, I think my preference was for:

(< xo) XO (xo >)

with the (< xo) units reacting as one big button. That is, you could
click on either the XO or the arrow. I believe this is how it
functions now, apart from the order of the xos and arrows being
reversed. Another possibility would be to make that more explicit by
using text/icon buttons, instead of just icons, like:

( xo Back ) XO ( xo Next)

In other words, the buttons would be the usual pill-shaped gray
buttons, with a colored XO for an icon and the word "next" or "back."
That would help reduce confusion about which XO is "My XO."

Eben


>
> -walter
>
> --
> Walter Bender
> Sugar Labs
> http://www.sugarlabs.org
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