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Opened 9 years ago
Closed 6 years ago
#484 closed defect (fixed)
Make contact graph mouse button behavior match graphics window (select and zoom)
| Reported by: | Owned by: | Tom Goddard | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Priority: | major | Milestone: | |
| Component: | General Controls | Version: | |
| Keywords: | Cc: | ||
| Blocked By: | Blocking: | ||
| Notify when closed: | Platform: | all | |
| Project: | ChimeraX |
Description
Currently contact graph ctrl-left and right mouse button presses bring up a context menu. The pan and zoom mouse behaviors on contact graphs are done with middle mouse and shift-middle mouse or left mouse and shift-left mouse on the background, and select on the graph is done with shift-left mouse. These are all confusing because they don't match the graphics window use of ctrl-click to select and right mouse to zoom. But the context menu display using right mouse button and ctrl-left mouse button is a firmly established convention in Mac, Windows and Linux operating systems across all applications.
How should we resolve this conflict?
One idea is to ignore the context menu mouse button conventions and use left mouse button to show the context menu and use the ctrl-left for select, and right for zoom on the contact graph just like the graphics window.
I've made zooming the plot work with scroll wheel or two-finger drag scroll or any scroll mechanism.
I made left click show the context menu since this is the most commonly used feature of the tool and users with laptops and trackpads will likely find left click easier than right click.
Right drag now moves the plot, as does middle drag. And for those with single button (e.g. trackpad), alt-left-click also moves the plot.
Ctrl-left click on a node selects that chain, on a line selects the two chains, and on the background clears the selection. Ctrl-right click also selects (on Mac ctrl-left and ctrl-right are not distinguishable).
These new mouse assignments parallel the behavior of the graphics window.
The former behavior allowed left click on a node to show only that chain and neighbors, and left click on an edge to show only the contacting pair of chains. That behavior is no longer available with just one click -- but is available in the context menu.
Another drawback of the new behavior is that the convention that right click shows a context menu is violated. Ease of use and allowing ctrl-click to select seemed worth this sacrifice.