gschem attribute editor ignores double click

[KaiMartin]

The click policy of the gschem attribute editor is very non standard. Currently, it asks for two click actions to edit one of the attributes. A click action can be either a single click, or a double click. The result is confusing:
Depending on the speed, two clicks will enter edit mode, or just select the current line. I have seen many newbies struggle with this behavior.

To reproduce:

1) open gschem

2) add a component

3) select the component and type [ee]] to make the attribute editor appear.

4a) left-mouse-click an attribute value twice with some decent time between the clicks
--> The value enters keyboard edit mode

4b) left-mouse-click an attribute value twice with little time between the clicks, so the window manager interprets it as a double click.
--> The whole row of the attribute get selected color. The value field needs yet another mouse click to enter edit mode.

Proposed resolution: directly enter edit mode on any left mouse click (single, or double).

---<)kaimartin(>---

[Joe Eli Mcilvain (jemc)]

I agree that this should be changed, but I think the new behavior should be:

single click selects the row
single click on an already selected row enters edit mode
double click on any row enters edit mode

This would make minimal difference for those already accustomed to the current setup, make it more intuitive for those not accustomed, and give everyone a quicker way to enter edit mode (save those milliseconds!)

I'll work on a patch that behaves this way.

[Joe Eli Mcilvain (jemc)]

I've got a patch that behaves this way.

It turns out that the edit focus behavior is just a part of how the gtk works, but I figured out a simple workaround that isn't too hacky, I think.

The result feels much more intuitive, and doesn't really disrupt the status quo for editing. I doubt anyone will miss having to do slow double-clicks to edit, and you still can do them slowly to the same effect.

This is my first patch made with git, so please let me know if I did something in the "git diff" process wrong, or if my code/comments need cleaned up. I plan on contributing patches to the community on a regular basis, so you might as well correct me now.

[Joe Eli Mcilvain (jemc)]

... And here's the patch, actually attached this time:

[Joe Eli Mcilvain (jemc)]

Although the previous patch worked, it generated a gtk error.
This is now fixed in patch v1.

[KaiMartin (kmk-familieknaak)]

I very much appreciate any usability improvement for this very frequently used dialog. What is the use case for a selected attribute line? If there is none, then why not start edit mode after a single left-mouse-click too.
---<)kaimartin(>---

[Joe Eli Mcilvain (jemc)]

To me, it feels more intuitive to select row on a single click, although I admit that it really doesn't serve a useful purpose right now.

Anyway, I'm more concerned with making sure this gets committed to the git. So if whoever is going to commit it with their commit privileges prefers single click to select row like I do, then the patch is done. If they want single click to start edit, I'm happy to alter the patch to work this way, or even to alter it so that it is settable as a user preference in a resource file after source build. Whatever it takes to get rid of the triple-click / slow double click requirement in the committed git version.

Powers that be? What say you all?

[Peter TB Brett (peter-b)]

Thanks for the patch, Joe! To assist in generating good patch files, please read the suggestions in the HACKING file in the root directory of the gEDA git repository.