Graph line color change setting is hard to find, can we make it less hidden?

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Several users have asked about how to change the colors of the lines on the 
graph. Evidently, the current interface for changing the colors is too obscure 
(instructions in tooltip in RA/Dec / dx/dy button).

There must be a more obvious way... perhaps clicking on the colored RA or Dec 
label itself?

Original issue reported on code.google.com by andy.gal...@gmail.com on 27 Aug 2013 at 8:08

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Good point.  I think the "RA/Dec" button is badly over-loaded.  As a long-time 
PHD user, I always fumble around with it.  Just as one example, if I want to 
see the dx/dy offsets, why would I click on a button labeled "RA/Dec"? <g>  We 
have serious real estate issues here, so why not convert it to an "Options..." 
button and bring up a modal dialog that supports data selection (dx/dy vs. 
ra/dec) or graph color selection or - whatever else we may need down the road.  
Seems more straightforward to me... 

Bruce

Original comment by bw_ms...@earthlink.net on 31 Aug 2013 at 4:24

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I was thinking the same thing. I was thinking about putting it on the view 
menu, but I'm not stuck on that idea either.

Original comment by br...@boneheads.us on 31 Aug 2013 at 4:38

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I was thinking just click on the colored RA or Dec labels themselves.

Original comment by andy.gal...@gmail.com on 31 Aug 2013 at 4:53

[GoogleCodeExporter]

But this wouldn't clean up all the problems IMHO.  Shift and control clicking 
buttons is a little unusual.  There's nothing wrong with it, but it's a little 
odd and not something many users are accustomed to doing.  If we have a single 
options dialog launched by an obvious button, we could also eliminate the 
shift-click behavior on the scale button for switching between units of pixels 
and arc-secs.  My thinking is that users are often tired and squinting in the 
dark and having things "hidden" in any way is frustrating.  I guess another 
option would be a right-click on the graph area to bring up a context menu...

Original comment by bw_ms...@earthlink.net on 31 Aug 2013 at 9:30

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I think I agree - the current attempt to set all the options "in band" is not 
obvious, where as a settings button would be.  If we moved most of the graph 
options there it would probably make more sense.  The question then becomes, 
what to move there. It seems like things that you want to change fairly often 
should be on the graph, and things you want to set and forget should be on the 
settings dialog. It also occurs to me that a second row across the bottom (like 
the mini brain) to change  a few might be OK, but skipping that thought for 
now, here are my quick thoughts...

- graph x scale (currently a buttons) - maybe yes - The buttons are not "bad", 
but if it was a spin box, people could set the length to be integer multiples 
of their worm period, for example...
- graph y scale (currently a button) - maybe no -  This is the one that people 
are likely to want to change on the fly, I think.  If you drift off the top, 
you might want to change the scale. Of course, and "Auto" would do that too but 
it might be too subtle so people would miss it.
- clear - no - 
- dy/dx vs ra/dec - definitely
- graph line colors - definitely
- graph line style - definitely [ we don't have this yet, but it is requested 
in another issue ]
- show trend line - probably not -  since you will want it on, then want to 
toggle it off when done aligning.
- guiding statistics - right now they are always on, but maybe we should toggle 
them?  Or put them somewhere else? They seem "stuck onto" the graph window.

Original comment by br...@boneheads.us on 1 Sep 2013 at 2:21

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Comment from Andy: 
I agree, I hate the Shift/Ctrl-click interface too.

I think I like your idea about the right-click giving a context menu, but I'm 
concerned that may be too windows-centric because Macs don't have right mouse 
buttons, and I haven't used a Mac in a long time so I'm not sure what the 
mac-equivalent gesture is.

The nice thing about the buttons the way they are today is that they are not a 
modal dialog :)  I like the interactivity of being able to simply click the 
buttons to change the view. I think it would be annoying if that got moved into 
a modal dialog box. On the other hand, things that get set once and 
never/seldom change, like the color selections, are ok to be in a dialog I 
think.

 If we did go with a right-click context menu, Maybe it would look like:
 |--------------------|
 | x | RA/Dec         |
 |   | dx/dy          |
 |--------------------|
 |   | y-axis: pixels |
 | x | y-axis: arcsec |
 |--------------------|
 |   | RA Color ...   |
 |   | Dec Color ...  |
 |--------------------|

Is that what you were thinking?

Would we also want to put x and y scale on the drop-down?

Ooh, here's an idea for the x and y scale: we could do drop-down menus like I 
did for "Manage Profiles..." on the Connect Equipment dialog. so if you click 
the "x:100" button, it would drop-down options (context menu):
|-----|
| 50  |
| 100 |
| 200 | 
| 400 |
|-----|
then you click your choice. Likewise for the y-axis scale button.
I think that would be an improvement on the current method of clicking the 
button repeatedly to cycle through the values.

Original comment by bw_ms...@earthlink.net on 1 Sep 2013 at 9:30

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I agree with the "Right Click is too Windows Centric" observation.

In my earlier comment, I mentioned the possibility of adding a second row at 
the bottom like the mini-brain. The more I think about it, and reading the last 
comment about dropdowns, the more I think that might be the way to go.  It is 
an unexpected user interface to have a button change the scale like we have 
now.  I think we should have dropdowns on the mini-brain II for those things.  
It is not modal, it is interactive, and won't surprise people.

Original comment by br...@boneheads.us on 1 Sep 2013 at 9:38

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I think we're converging on a hybrid solution.  If we use the same approach 
Andy did with his new 'manage profiles' function, we get the benefit of a 
pop-up menu without having it 'hidden' or accessible in a way that's foreign to 
Mac users.  So we would have an 'Options' button that would bring up a context 
menu, and that menu would have both "quick" property changes (RA/Dec vs dx/dy, 
pixels vs. arc-secs...) and a modal dialog launch for graph display properties 
(RA/Dec colors, line styles...).  I don't know what to do about the x/y scale 
properties, still thinking about that... 

Original comment by bw_ms...@earthlink.net on 1 Sep 2013 at 9:39

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Sounds good, Bruce.
I was thinking we would keep the x and y scale buttons that we have today, but 
rather than the buttons cycling through the possible values, they would pop up 
a context menu with the choices.
Andy

Original comment by andy.gal...@gmail.com on 2 Sep 2013 at 12:34

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I've got clouds again tonight, so I will take a crack at implementing what we 
discussed. Let's see how it looks... if we want to tweak it more we always 
can...

Original comment by andy.gal...@gmail.com on 2 Sep 2013 at 7:18

• Changed state: Accepted

[GoogleCodeExporter]

This issue was closed by revision r479.

Original comment by andy.gal...@gmail.com on 3 Sep 2013 at 7:19

• Changed state: Fixed