[Ktechlab-devel] Some brainstorming...

[Thomas Winkel]

Am Mittwoch 11 Januar 2006 18:56 schrieb David Saxton:
>> * Zoom in/out by mouse-scrolling (like in cadsoft/eagle)
>Good idea. I've implemented zooming in/out by Ctrl+Mouse-Scroll.
Great, thank you, is it possible to focus the mouse pointer while zooming?

> I don't understand - what is "Strg"?
Ups, my fault, as Matt already wrote, "Strg" is the german equivalent to 
"Ctrl". There are many Windows programs, including OpenOffice that behave 
like this, when holding "Ctrl" and clicking an object, a + sign appears next 
to the  mouse pointer and then by dragging you make a copy of this object.
Doing the same with the "Shift" key moves the object vertical or horizontal 
only. A combination of "Ctrl" and "Shift" is possible, too.
I'm not sure, if this is a famous feature in Unix environments, but its very 
usefull, anyway.

> > * Embed HTML pages in context help in order to allow formulas,
> >   example circuits, truth-tables, PIC instruction-set tables and
> >   continuative web links.
>
> The context help is already capable of displaying rich text, including
> tables and images (and if more advanced displaying is needed, it would be
> very easy to use KHTML for viewing html...).
> The main problem is getting the help written (any volunteers? :) )
The problem for me is to make use of all this features in this .po file, for 
small thinks its ok, but for complexer help it would be very usefull if one 
could use tools like Nvu. If it would be that easy, maybe more people would 
help writing documentation. Especially if one could do it without having the 
source and recompiling may encourage many non-developers.
I would like to write more education targeting part-descriptions in the German 
version, but I don't think that my English is good enough that you would 
accept it for a release... ;)
By the way, I think the context help should also follow a selection in the 
item browser, so a user can get information about an item before placing it.

> > * Make oscilloscope look&feel like a real digital storage oscilloscope
>
> electronerd is improving the oscilloscope at the moment, so hopefully
> that'll make it loads better :)
Great, triggering is the feature I miss the most.

> > * Allow alternative symbols (US/European, for example) as option
>
> As far as I'm aware, US/European symbols differ only on resistors and logic
> gates? Configurability should be easy to implement...
Inductance and poled capacitors also look different, but the main problem are 
the logic US symbols, we Germans really hate them! ;)
Maybe more alternative symbols could be a general user option in the item 
editor for all parts. In the main KTechlab settings could be an option US/EU 
symbols which set the default, shown in the item browser.
If you provide the framework, I would draw the EU symbols. I'm not very 
familiar with C++, but with your symbols as draft it should work.

> > * Create subCircuits by:
> >   - marking an wired area
> >   - right-click -> Create Sub Circuit
> >   (like in Simulink)
>
> Already possible - as long as the selection has an "External Connection"
> component in it. However, I've just realised that this feature (at least in
> 0.3) is hidden if there aren't any "External Connection" components in the
> selection - which isn't very discoverable (poor usability...) - so I've
> changed it so that the create subcircuit option is disabled instead of
> hidden.
I thought about a mechanism that automatic splits those wires, that connect 
selected items with unselected ones and insert the required external 
connections, Matlab/Simulink does it that way.
Is there a way to edit subcircuits later? I expected that a new tab would open 
when I doubleclick a subcircuit, but unlocated such a feature.

> > * I want to see a soldering gun instead of the pen for routing!!! :)
>
> Any good artists on the mailing list? The KDE standard icon set doesn't
> seem to include a soldering iron...
I'm absolutely uncreative, I can only draw symmetric, rectangular things ;)

You didn't mention it, but I think it would improve usability a lot, if items 
would rotate about 90 degrees clockwise each time clicking the right mouse 
buttom while moving it.


I hope my English is at least understandable... ;)
Thomas