Actions menu suggested text & organization

[Elaine Meng]

The Surface part would stay unchanged and is not mentioned.

Actions

Atoms/Bonds

Show
Show Only
Hide

Show Sidechain/Base
Backbone Only
Chain Trace Only
Cartoon

Show
Hide
Rounded Edges
Squared Edges
Piped Edges [...or Welted, Flanged, or Lipped if you must, or omit]
Tube Helices

Atom Style

Stick
Ball & Stick
Sphere
Ring Fill

Thick
Thin
None

Nucleotide Style

Ladder
Stubs
Slab Base, Ribose Tube
Slab Base, Ribose Atoms
Atoms (Filled Rings) [...or just one Atoms entry, see below]
Atoms (No Ring Fill)

Delete

Notes:

• wanted to make the division between display and style clearer to help people understand that if the atoms are hidden, choosing sticks, ladder, etc. won’t show anything at all; important enough to add rollover (Style submenu)

• prefer "sidechain" to "side chain" (which makes the virgule ambiguous… what's a "side base?”)

• really need "cartoon show" so one can toggle without having to change existing style(s) or remember what they were (e.g. default has squared-edge strands, rounded-edge coil/helix) or recalculate helix tubes

• cartoon and ribbon are mostly synonymous, no need to repeat

• much prefer "stubs" to "broken rungs"; stubs already used in preset name and seems clear/descriptive to me ...but if you really really hate stubs, shouldn't I change preset name too?? don't need 50 terms for the same thing buzzing around in people's heads

• could have only one Atoms entry in Nucleotide Style because there are already choices to fill/unfill rings. If one really wants to fill nuc rings and not other rings, can select nucleic acid first.

• I don't like "lipped" so I gave some alternatives, if we even include that choice in the menu. Pymol calls them “fancy”: Fancy mode helices are ribbons with tubular edges à la MolScript.

(but don’t want to use “tubular” due to possible confusion with tube helices)
All I can find in the MolScript docs:

In the Raster3D output mode, the helix has a thickness and a rounded edge controlled by the helixthickness parameter.

(but I think “Rounded Edge” is a better description for the oval xsection. No wonder Pymol called them something else)

• there are so many cartoon styles more likely to be used than the piped edges, like the licorice style in the presets, but I also think we don't want to go "there" in this actions menu unless there will be a full control of width and thickness (dialog where you can enter values a la Chimera's Cartoon Style Editor)

[pett]

In this new scheme, do the specific cartoon styles also imply "show"?

[Elaine Meng]

No, I wasn’t thinking it would; it would be analogous to atom styles, where choosing stick style with nothing selected is not going to show all the atoms.

[pett]

Okay, implemented.