Re: [Gimp-user] Redesign "move selection"?

[Akkana Peck <akkana shallowsky com>]

Richard writes:
> Oh, boy, THIS subject.  Where my workflow is concerned this was the BIGGEST breaking change GIMP ever made 
> -- yes, even bigger than when 2.8 split Save and Export.  (And we remember all the complaints over that, 
> right?)
>
> I am one of those where when I no-modifier click and drag a selection my preferred action is to pick up 
> those pixels and move them around (rather than shifting the mask).  It is ... a minimum of annoying that we 
> have zero means of configuring GIMP to match our workflow in this respect.

Just so you hear from the other side ...

For me, the new selection tools, where drag moved the selection mask
(not its contents) was a huge win. I was forever frustrated at how hard
it was to move a selection, especially with ellipse selections where
you can't tell when you start dragging where the top left of the
ellipse will end up. I remember always having to switch to the Move
tool, change mode to "Move selection", drag, change modes back then
change tools. I was fairly new then, so maybe there was an easier
way via a modifier key that I just never discovered.

I very seldom want to move the contents of the selection. I edit a
lot of photos, and on a photo that just leaves a ragged white hole
behind. In the rare event that I want to move just part of a
transparent layer), it's easy, Select->Float (Shift-Ctrl-L).

I'm not saying Richard is wrong -- I know he's not alone, I've heard
enough people who miss the old behavior. Just that for me, the
current UI is much better, and that it's a lot easier now to move
the selection contents than it used to be to move the selection.
If the default ever changes to float-and-move, please include an
easy and discoverable way to move the selection mask without needing
to change tools or tool options.

> A second alternative would be to give the selection tools a sensitivity threshold -- i.e. you must click 
> and drag the cursor a minimum # of screen pixels before the tool will start the drag action.  I wonder if 
> this could have solved most of those accidental microadjustments people complained about in GIMP 2.2 
> without introducing a breaking change....

In my case it had nothing to do with threshold; it was more the lack
of an easy, intuitive way to move the mask.

        ...Akkana