New Slider: Comments

Hi David,

I like the counter style increments a lot but now that the double click behaviour of the slider has changed, would you introduce some more functionality to this new text entry field, please.

Example:

If I have a slider with 0 as min and 1 as max and a value of 0.5. I would like to be able to type in a new maximum value and have the slider properties change instead of having to open up the window to edit the field.

If I simply type 10 this might be too open to mistakes and I wouldn't be able to force a smaller value, so what if you could type max=10 or min=-10. If this was possible you could even extend it to range= or even name=.

Also please would you add a field to the popup edit window that allows you to specify the name of the slider. That way both the popup window and the context menu is a one stop shop for all variables.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on March 1, 2011 at 5:34am

Also I've just noticed with the stand alone scroller component I cannot drag the radix point all the way to the right to make integers. Is this intentional?

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 1, 2011 at 6:00am

Well, sort of. You're not allowed to create a scroller ending in a radix point. There's no real reason for this other than that it looks sort of silly. I can't make the radix point disappear though, because then you couldn't get it back.

I'm not sure yet how to solve this, any suggestions welcome.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 1, 2011 at 6:08am

Thinking out loud here, what about typing:

4 < 7 < 10

to set both the lower limit, upper limit and value all at once?

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Danny Boyes on March 1, 2011 at 6:10am

would you always have to type all three?

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 1, 2011 at 7:15am

Well, 7 < 10 would equal TRUE, which translates into a numeric value of 1. So this is pretty far from ideal anyway.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Mateusz Zwierzycki on March 1, 2011 at 8:47am

I'll just remind my proposition for slider, I know its not perfect, but please consider this.

slider proposition

Permalink Reply by Rob Mintzes on March 2, 2011 at 3:47pm

I hate to add negativity into this, but what was the purpose of changing the aesthetic of the slider window? I can understand the numbers in the counters easily enough and I can manipulate the interface, but it still leaves me wondering what the point is, especially if I can just double-click the counters anyway and still manually input the numbers. Forgive me, but it just feels like an unnecessary extra step for visual polish. Additionally, if I should happen to manipulate the counters, it causes my Rhino 5 64-bit to freeze and crash (3-1-11 WIP).

Permalink Reply by David Rutten on March 2, 2011 at 4:14pm

The point of the new digit scroller control is to provide control over every single digit. In the old numeric inputs, there was a preset step-size. So if you pressed the UP button the value would increase by X, if you pressed the DOWN button the value would decrease by X. If you wanted to change the number by 10*X or 1000*X, you'd either have to press the button 10 or a 1000 times or type in a new value. If you wanted to change the number by 0.1*X your only option was to type.

I don't like having an interface that forces you to let go of the mouse, which is why I'm testing this digit scroller concept.

I agree with you that typing used to be easier (it used to be a single-click-then-type, now it's a double-click-then-type), and this needs to be solved. It will probably take a while before this digit scroller acts as smoothly and intuitively as the tried and tested solution, developing good GUI is an arduous process with lots of trial and error.

David Rutten

david@mcneel.com

Poprad, Slovakia

Permalink Reply by Victor Leung on March 17, 2011 at 11:08pm

Hi David,

I do a lot of sketching in GH, where I am concerned about the routine of setting up a new slider. I found that it is pretty inconvenient now, especially for the sider not being able to self adjust the Max Value when I key in a slider value larger than the current range. This makes fast sketching quite problematic because I have to set a range first (to figure out the Max value in mind) before keying-in the value, this make sketching much more brain consumming.

Another thing is that the routine of changing the value: Double click - Type - Enter Key or Tick - Click OK (To close the dialog) I have to go back and forth the mouse->keyboard->mouse is pretty stupid. I have to memorize when I should use Enter Key, when should I click OK. Notice that if I key-in a new value and clicked ok without pressing Enter or the Tick, it would result in no-change, only that the dialog box closed.

I appreciate the digit scroller and the list inputs, both are pretty useful to make a better interface for the end-users, but for the basic slider, I think having the digit scroller inside the slider's detailed control is slowing down the scripting process.

The workaround I have right now for common slider types I often use (for example range in 1-1000, integer slider) is to customize the slider and save them individually as user-object.

Cheers

Victor

Permalink Reply by Victor Leung on March 17, 2011 at 11:20pm

Dear David,

Also if you care about a minor bug, the Delete key doesn't behave as it should be when I'm keying in a value.

cheers

Victor

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