Re: [Gimp-gui] Make the selected tool default to the Color Picker instead of the last tool used

[Elle Stone <ellestone ninedegreesbelow com>]

On 11/05/2015 01:26 PM, Jehan wrote:
> Hi,
>
> > > On 2015-11-03 18:36, Elle Stone wrote:

> > When working on an image, sometimes it seems like I use the Color
> > Picker after just about every editing operation. Having to
> > deliberately click on the tool icon to rechoose the Color Picker of
> > itself is tedious. But I can ease that issue by assigning (and using)
> > a keyboard shortcut.
> >
> > Here's what seems to be the real problem:
> >
> > For many tools, including Curves and Levels, the selected tool's
> > Cursor doesn't actually appear until I "touch" the canvas, at which
> > point the last-used operation dialog pops up and I have to dismiss
> > that dialog and then choose the Color Picker.
> >
> > > I'm wondering if the issue in your specific example is not rather than
> > > the cursor of "Curves" is nearly the same as the cursor of the "Color
> > > Picker" (a small pipette)? Maybe this is confusing?
>>
> > It would help a lot if the Color Picker Cursor were changed, or rather
> > preferably change the Curves cursor and keep the Color Picker Cursor
> > the same.

> > It would help a lot (this would be the key change) if the selected
> > tool's Cursor could immediately display "on hover",  *before* clicking
> > on the canvas, for more tools, specifically including Levels, Curves,
> > Desaturate, and other tools with icons that can be put in the toolbox.
>
> For me, this is an obvious bug. The Curves tool was not considered
> "enabled" at selection but at initialization (which happened only when
> you start computing, i.e. at the first click). Fixed with commits
> 011c6db for Curves.

Thanks! that's a nice commit. That makes Curves indicate that it's the 
chosen tool by showing the cursor icon upon hovering over the image, and 
also it causes the status bar to display the cursor icon and some 
explanatory text. The "show icon upon hover is the more useful of the 
two for people like me who tend to have no status bar, no menu bar, ect 
cluttering up the available screen real estate.

> Desaturate on the other hand does not have any cursor here, which may
> seem understandable since it does not look like it has a lot of
> interaction on canvas. Does it have a special cursor in your case?
> As for Levels, the cursor changes only when you explicitly check one of
> the "Pick white/black/grey point" button, and disappears after, which
> seems reasonable and consistent to me.
> Did I miss something for these 2 tools?

I went into Preferences and put every possible tool in the toolbox and 
checked to see what happens upon hovering over the image.

These tools indicate that they are the selected tool by showing an icon 
when hovering over the image, and also by displaying the icon in the 
status bar, along with some explanatory text:

airbrush
align
blur/sharpen
clone
color picker
curves
dodge/burn
ellipse select
eraser
foreground select
free select
fuzzy select
heal
ink
paintbrush
paths
pencil
rectangle select
scissors select
select by color
smudge

These tools indicate that they are the selected tool by showing an icon 
when hovering over the image. But they don't show an icon or explanatory 
text in the status bar.

blend
bucket fill
cage
crop
flip
measure
move
perspective
perspective clone
rotate
scale
shear
text
unified transform
warp
zoom

These tools don't show an icon upon hovering over the image and also 
don't show any explanatory text in the status bar:

brightness-contrast
color balance
colorize
desaturate
gegl
gegl
hue-saturation
levels
posterize
threshold

(As an aside, the second gegl icon doesn't seem to do anything. Though 
if you click on the image, the history dialog shows that a gegl 
operation happened.)

As all the tools listed above do have very nice icons, it would be nice 
if their icons would show upon hovering over the image.

That would leave all the tools that are under various menus, but don't 
have icons to put them in the toolbox. Maybe a generic icon for "all 
other tools?

What are the criteria that separate "shows the icon" tools from "doesn't 
show the icon" tools?

Best,
Elle