[Kstars-devel] RFC: new popup "menu"?

[Jason Harris]

On Sunday 12 March 2006 13:04, Mike McGavin wrote:
> Has there been any consideration into putting those menu title details
> into an Info Box for more immediate access?  Perhaps it could be
> populated with the user's most recent left click, or by hovering over
> something.  Maybe the user should have some control over which details
> are displayed if they don't like the defaults, depending on what
> they're most interested in.  The context menu could continue to
> provide possible actions on an object, as it is now, but without the
> titles.  This way, information's available about any selected object
> quite quickly, and it's at least as straightforward to perform any
> actions on that object as it is at present.
>
Hmm, interesting.  I think I prefer the idea of the information appearing at 
the location of the object in the map.  Similar to the POI popups in Google 
maps, but less intrusive.

How about this:  You hover the mouse near an object.  After a moment, the 
object's name label appears (as it does now): "M 42".  If the mouse continues 
to hover, after another brief pause, the name label is joined by other 
information, perhaps surrounded by a thin outline:

      M 42 (Orion Nebula)
    Gaseous nebula in Orion
     mag = 3.0, size = 85'
 rose 02:44h ago, sets in 05:08h
 RA = 05:35:35,  Dec = -05:23:13
 Az = 101:44:38, Alt = +02:34:48
 HA = -02:33:40, Airmass = 1.9

Most likely, we would show only the first two lines by default, and let the 
user configure which lines they'd like to be shown.

This box of text would look like an infobox, but it would fade out like our 
current hover labels do, when the mouse moves away.  That is, unless the user 
has explicitly selected "Attach Info", which would work similarly to "Attach 
Label": the boxes for those objects would be persistent in the map (and 
values like Rise Time, Set Time, Az and Alt would be updated as time passes).  
They would also be made to not overlap with each other as the sky is panned 
around (which might be difficult at low zoom with a number of these added!)

We could even add small "Action buttons" to the infoboxes for actions like 
Center&Track, Details, add to Observing List, Point Telescope, take CCD 
picture, etc.  

> Personally I'm not sure about extra windows and dialogs except for
> very detailed and specialised information that can't easily be
> presented without them.  They tend to have a lot of display overhead
> such as window title bars, close buttons, and blank padding space that
> covers more of the map than seems necessary.  They also require a lot
> of mouse or keyboard action to manipulate, as well as get out of the
> way.  Idea's #1 and #2 both look as if they'd require at least two
> clicks to see most of the options available, and probably three clicks
> to do anything (as you mentioned)... at least the current menu only
> needs two clicks to select actions.
>
Yeah, I think we've concluded that my previous ideas will be the evolution of 
the Details window, not the popup menu.  So no worries here.

> Anyway, those are just my thoughts as a user.  I really appreciate all
> the time and effort that you all put into this, and I'm sure it'll
> work great no matter what's decided.
>
Thanks a lot for your feedback, I'm definitely feeling the developer's itch 
about these ideas... :)

Jason
-- 
-------------------------------
KStars: KDE Desktop Planetarium
http://edu.kde.org/kstars