[Ipe-discuss] Proposed change of current translation mode behavior

[Willem Sonke]

Hi André,

When I'm in translation mode, I expect Ipe to maintain my current 
selection when I start dragging even far away from the currently 
selected object.

So I agree with your frustration, and hence always set 
"prefs.close_distance = 1e100" in my prefs.lua to avoid Ipe from 
changing my selection when in translation mode.

Kind regards,
Willem



On 2023/04/20 17:33, André Nusser via Ipe-discuss wrote:
> Hi everybody,
> 
> I already posted this on the github issues page 
> (https://github.com/otfried/ipe-issues/issues/459) but wanted to get 
> some more input so I now also post it to this mailing list.
> 
> I propose to change the behavior of translation mode, but would like to 
> get some more input from the ipe community as this is quite a 
> fundamental change.
> 
> Currently, when being in translation mode and the cursor is far from the 
> object that is selected, then a closer object is selected and translated 
> instead (as is also described in the ipe manual). This behavior can be 
> quite frustrating, e.g., trying to translate a circle having the cursor 
> on its center often does not translate the circle but another object 
> that is close to the center.
> 
> There are two ways to avoid the behavior in the above example:
> 
> 1. Do not only consider the boundary of the circle but also the interior 
> when deciding which object to translate.
> 2. Change the behavior of translation mode.
> 
> I would go for the second option, and I suggest the following change:
> - If an object is selected in translation mode, then always translate 
> this object.
> - If no object is selected, then translate the closest object to the 
> cursor (which is already the case I believe); However, do not select the 
> object that is being translated.
> 
> Like this, one can translate a lot of different objects without exiting 
> translation mode, but one can still get the (subjectively) expected 
> behavior if an object is selected. The same of course also applies to 
> rotation, etc.
> 
> I'd be happy to hear if anybody has a better idea how to improve the 
> current behavior or if people would prefer the behavior that I suggest.
> 
> All the best,
> André
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