Features (usability) : Active tool "Hints" in the bottom bar

[blurymind]

Here is an example of where this would be useful: Showing a hint of the active item - what modifier keys do when you are using it. This is usually done in the bottom bar like that.

Example: Transform tool: Hold Alt to rotate selection, press Enter to stamp pixels, click to apply selection, hold shift for uniform scale.

If the full text is not visible, hovering over it with the mouse should display it

[digitalcircuit]

Inkscape seems to do this very well, updating the hint according to what tool you select, what modifier keys you're holding, and whatever you're currently doing in the document.

For example, using the "Edit path by nodes" tool with one node selected and the mouse not hovering over anything, Inkscape shows this:

"1 of 14 nodes selected. Drag to select nodes, click to edit only this object (more: Shift)"

[Wade821]

Is there still an interest in making this feature available? I'm of the personal opinion that it isn't worth the effort, because Callaa would have to program a lot of situational checks based on how the user is currently working with the program to display the appropriate hint. This means a lot of effort for such a small feature change. Most of the information on how to use Drawpile is available online already.

Right now, Callaa is the only active developer on Drawpile, which is tens of thousands of lines of code last I checked.

Compare this to the number of contributors who have worked on Inkscape's program. https://inkscape.org/contribute/contributors/

To be clear, I'm not against the idea. I think it's great because it'd make things easier for people to learn the program. But I feel this is something for when the program is polished enough that less big features are being added and more fixes are being put into it. So it's a rather low priority feature in my opinion.