[LAD] Mouse/knob interaction

[Olivier Guilyardi]

On 09/08/2010 12:46 AM, Tim E. Real wrote:

> However, I would like to share with you a 'patented' (he he) 
>  technique I developed a long time ago:

I am contesting the patent, I did start to work on the same idea two years ago :p

> When the mouse cursor goes to the edge of the screen you
>  have no more movement, forcing you to pick up the mouse
>  and go back to another position away from the screen edge
>  and continue adjusting.

Fully agreed.

Small knobs at the bottom of the screen are unusable.

> So here's what you do in the coding: 
> When the control is clicked, you turn off the mouse cursor so that
>  it is always INVISIBLE during adjustment, then you force it to the 
>  CENTRE of the screen, and wait for some mouse movement.
> When movement happens, you record how much it moved (delta)
>  and use that to adjust the control's value (as usual), and then you 
>  FORCE the mouse cursor right back to the CENTRE of the screen again,
>  waiting for more mouse movement, and the whole process repeats.
> Then when the control is un-clicked, you force the mouse cursor
>  back to where it originally would have been, and turn it on again 
>  so it's visible.

That's quite what happens with Jackbeat sliders, oh well, that was the basic
idea. The pointer is hidden during the move, and restored (warped) to its
original position afterwards. However, at some point in time, I think I left the
idea of centering on the screen aside. There must have been some GTK/GDK
problems on some OS out there. And actually I reorganized the UI so that is not
needed.

> This way the mouse NEVER reaches the edge of the screen during 
>  adjustment, although it may physically reach the edge of your desk.

This isn't much of an issue, you can always lift the mouse and put it back on
the desk.