[Kst] Kst 2.0.0 Beta 2 Release

[D. V. Wiebe]

On Fri, May 08, 2009 at 04:43:41PM -0400, Mike wrote:
> Hello Everyone,
> 
> The second Beta version of Kst 2.0.0 has just been uploaded and should be
> available on mirrors shortly.  Anyone interested in trying out the new
> version should feel free.  
> 
> This version adds additional features as well as greatly increases performance.  
> 
> A windows binary is now also available for download from kst.kde.org for anyone looking to try it out without compiling.
> 
> Enjoy!
> Mike

Looks pretty good.

I haven't tried packaging it up yet, but here's a few things I noticed
while running it in-situ and attempting to re-create a paper plot made
in kst 1.x.  This list ranges from bugs through wishes to just comments.

1. data source text box in first panel of data wizard inevitably moves
the text cursor to the end of the input after entering a character,
making it difficult to edit in the middle of a path

2. data source text box doesn't recognise initial ~ as a euphemism for
the user's home directory.

3. toggling log-x axis (key 'g') doesn't do anything until you poke at
the plot. (My impression is that a re-draw is being missed.)  toggling
log-y (key 'l') works as expected.

4. toggling log-x doesn't change the x-axis tick labels/positions, even
though the curves are drawn on a log scale.  Zooming in and pressing
"M" fixes this.  Again, y-log works as expected.

5. All the dialog boxes appear to be modal now (they block interaction
with the main window while open).  This slows me down significanlly.
(I find I'm constantly opening and closing dialogs)

6. Unless you've explicitly given it a Unique Name, the edit curve
dialog gives no hint as to the name of the curve you're editing.  This
is a problem when you have, say, twelve curves called "2 vs. 1" in a
single plot.  In 1.x I can doubleclick on the curve to bring up the edit
dialog containing its name to figure out the name of the particular
curve "2 vs. 1" I'm interested in.  Here, I have to go by trial and
error.

7. Adding a curve to a plot in the edit plot item dialog, and hitting
"Apply" causes the dialog box to grow wider.  Removing a plot does the
same thing.  The result is an ever-widening dialog box, which can't be
re-narrowed since it believes it is as small as it can get.  (It's the
list of tabs on the left which is doing the growing.)

8. Removing a curve from an autoscaled plot and hitting "apply" removes
the curve doesn't rescale the plot.  The plot is rescaled when "Ok" is
hit in the edit plot item dialog.  Adding a curve to an autoscaled plot
and hitting "apply" does rescale the plot.

9. Plotting too many decades in, the x- or y-log axis results in "y-log
base-and-offset mode", giving, say, a base of 100, and tick labels
"-[99.9999]", "[0]", "+[9999900]", "+[1e12]", "+[1e17]" instead of
"0.001", "100", "1000000", "1e12","1e17".  (Although I'd argue that, if
we're going to label in 5 decade intervals, 1e-5, 1, 1e5, 1e10 is
better, and even better than that would be 6 decade intervals: 1e-6, 1,
1e6, 1e12)

10. In the content tab, double clicking on a curve in 1.x would move
it from the list it used to be in of the lists to the other.  This
saved the tedious click-on-curve, click-arrow-button,
click-on-next-curve, click-on-arrow-button, &c.

11. When in log mode, the range reported in the range tab of the edit
plot item is the logarithm of the range.  So if the y-range is 0.1 to
100, the range will be reported as -1 to 2.  Despite this, you still
have to enter "0.1" and "100" to get this range.

12. Changing the value of the fixed range limits doesn't active the
"Apply" button.

13. Hitting shift changes into y-zoom mode forever, rather than just
changing it while shift is depressed.  After doing this it's difficult
to get back to xy-zoom mode.  (I have to right click twice to open and
close the context menu.)

14. The weight of a drawn curve is apparently calculated as: (my weight)
+ (sum of weights of all lower numbered curves).  Being unable to
specify negative weights, curves just get heavier and heavier.

15. The text label behaviour is un-intuitive.  The typical interface is
to choose a position first, and then input some text.

16. Text labels have to be entered in a tiny little text box, making
decent sized labels frustrating to edit.  Furthermore lines, in a label
are separated by "\n" now?

17. There appears to be no way to change the colour of the plot border
and tick marks from black.  I though the brush colour under "Stroke"
might do it, but nope.

That's all for now.

Cheers,
-dvw
-- 
Don Wiebe                                   dvw at physics.ubc.ca
Department of Physics and Astronomy
University of British Columbia
6224 Agricultural Road                      Tele: +1-604-822-2585
University Endowment Lands, BC
Canada   V6T 1Z1                            http://ketiltrout.net/
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kst/attachments/20090511/0096fce4/attachment.sig