Re: Usubility suggestion and Rounded Rectangles in Dia

[Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>]

On Thu, 11 Jul 2002, Alan Horkan wrote:
> I have some minor questions about Rounded Recgtangles and i should
> probably start providing patches for the web page and faq and docs (i
> should add the distribution doc's to the webpage too) any time i get
> tripped up by these little things (it is certainly going in my personal
> mini-Faq).
>
> usability suggestion:
> Double clicking on the icons in the toolbox to set the default behaviour
> is in my opion a somewhat unlikely behaviour (to a novice user,
> unfamiliar with Gimp) and most of the shapes dont have default options.

Actually, most of the shapes do have default options.  Though in some
cases, they may not be all that useful.

> Perhaps it would help usability if instead the Toolbox buttons had 3
> states:
> normal,
> pressed (click once),
> locked (click twice to lock, click agian to unlock and reset to normal)
>
> in the third 'locked state' the shape would be the same as going to
> preferences and choosing:
> Reset tools after Create  [ No ]

How should defaults be set, then?  And is this really more intuitive and/or
useful? 

> Seeing as some buttons in real life has the mentioned behaviour i hope
> the developers will consider it seriously.  (a quick note offlist and i
> will file an RFE in bugzilla if asked)

Aside:  Buttons in real life?  You mean actual physical buttons? :)

If you mean other programs, I've never seen behaviour like that.  What
programs do that?

> Drawing Rounded Rectangles in Dia
>
> > > While i am being offtopic... (my bad) would it be easy to adapt the
> > > rounded rectantle in the UML sheet to be a generic Rounded Rectangle?
> >
> > The standard box is actually roundable.
>
> I searched through the archives to answer my other questions, and gather
> relevant questions to make this post really useful for anyone else who
> might dig it up from the mailinglist archive or for the time if/when i
> add to the documentation
>
> Question: How do i draw a Rounded rectangle?
> Just Double click the rectangle icon in the toolbox and set how rounded
> you want the rectangle edges to be.
>
> Alterntively if you want to make an existing rectangle rounded you can
> change the 'Corner Radius' value from the properties dialog.
>
> Question: Can other shapes such as polygons have rounded edges?
> Answer: Not currently
> http://mail.gnome.org/archives/dia-list/2001-August/msg00033.html
>
> Question: Can i have an inverse curve to give me a shape like a
> plaque/shield?
> Answer: No, the values may only be between 1 and 10, negative values are
> not allowed.

Excellent answers, though not that frequently asked.  

-Lars

-- 
Lars Clausen (http://shasta.cs.uiuc.edu/~lrclause)| Hårdgrim of Numenor
"I do not agree with a word that you say, but I   |----------------------------
will defend to the death your right to say it."   | Where are we going, and
    --Evelyn Beatrice Hall paraphrasing Voltaire  | what's with the handbasket?