[Kst] Feature Requests

[Ben Lewis]

Hi Bath,

Please see my comments below.

Regards, Ben

On 15/07/2014 2:35 AM, Barth Netterfield wrote:
> On July 14, 2014 9:13:18 PM Ben Lewis wrote:
>
>> Kst,
>>
>> Here are some features I would love to see in Kst...
>> *
>> Scroll Bar *- It would be great to have a scroll bar at the bottom of each
>> plot. This will give the user a perspective on where they are when zoomed
>> into a small window of a large data set. SensorCloud uses this
>> functionality, if you haven't seen it (it's very impressive) you can view
>> it in action here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6tko2wOJc4.
> Hmmm.... this doesn't really fit into kst's model (where consumers of vectors
> neither know nor care where the vector came from).  And one might have a plot
> which shows data from multiple datasources of different sizes and of different
> ranges.  So it is hard to understand what the scroll bar would refer to in
> this case.
>
> So... hmmm... let me think about it and see if I can come up with a
> coherent/consistent model.
It seems to me that this feature should work even when data sources are of different sizes and with 
different ranges. Ultimately the plot has a finite range with a first x-axis sample and a last 
x-axis sample. The scroll bar just shows what portion of the full range (from first to last sample) 
is currently in view.

When zoomed into a large data set it is easy to loose perspective. It can be difficult to tell how 
much progress is being made when scrolling backwards and forwards e.g. If I keep scrolling at this 
rate will I get through this data set in 5 minutes of five hours? Or I'm looking for an event that 
occurred about 3/4 through the test, is it likely to be forward or backward from my current position.

As an added feature, the scroll bar could be manipulated to control the view in the main plot area. 
The active portion of the scroll bar could be paned backwards and forwards (maintaining a fixed 
range) or the edges of it could be moved to expand or contract the current view (variable range).

WRT your suggestion of using a graphical version of the change range dialog. I don't this this is 
what I'm looking for. For this feature to be useful it needs to be quick. I'm pretty sure the change 
range feature will trigger a new read of the data source(s) which is on the intent of this feature. 
It's more about being able to move quickly around the currently loaded range.

I'm not sure how Kst works behinds the the UI so I may be way off track here and happy to be corrected.
>
>> *Digital Display* - Sometimes it is handy to have the current value of a
>> channel shown as a digital number. It is much quicker and more accurate to
>> read a number off a digital display rather than interpolate the value off a
>> plot. HBM's Catman software has this feature and a really nice touch is
>> that you can configure the display to show one of the channels statistical
>> values when live data is stopped. So when live data is streaming it will
>> show the current value but when live data stops it will display the
>> channels min, max, average or other such value. This is a really handy
>> feature and can save a lot of time. You can see this feature in action here
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q66D-yc5KnE (3:00 - 3:37)
> If I understand what you mean: We can already do this.
>
> Create a curve - say ploting [ALT (V2)] vs [Time (V1)].
> Create a label.
> As the label text use: Sensor: [ALT:Last (X15)] m
>
> When you type "[" in the label text box, a large auto completion box will
> appear with all of the possible scalars and strings that you can insert.  The
> list includes First, Last, Sigma, Mean, rms, Max and Min and a few other
> things for each vector.
>
> You can also do equations in labels:
> For example, [=[ALT:Sigma (X18)]^2] would give the square of the standard
> deviation.
Cool! I didn't know you could do that.

This is very close to what I'm looking for. It just seems a bit odd to put this sort of information 
in a label. Especially if there are a number of variables to keep track of (see RH label in screen 
shot below). It would be great if there was a "text box" with this sort of functionality that could 
be positioned just like the legend can.

>
>> *Set Default Update Type* - On the first screen of the data wizard the user
>> can choose the desired update type - time interval, change detection or no
>> update. The default is change detection. Once an update type has been
>> selected for a particular file, Kst will remember this, which is great. But
>> for a new file the user is forced to change this setting every time, if
>> they wish to use a setting other than change detection. It would be great
>> if the default setting could be changed somewhere.
> Definitely - I will add this.  You can add a wishlist bug for this so I don't
> forget :-)
Will do.
>
>> *Time Offset from ASCII File* - In the "Configure ASCII File" dialogue box
>> there are a number of options for the time offset source. It would be great
>> to add "Read offset from line:" as another source (just as is currently
>> done with field names and units).
> Can you make a wishlist bug for this?
Will do.
>
>> If any of these ideas are doable and other people also like them, I will
>> submit a formal feature request.
>>
>> Regards, Ben

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