PCB Standardized Menu Patch

[braddock]

Attached is a patch for Gtk PCB which normalizes the menu item names to
more closely follow modern menu conventions like the Gnome user interface
guidelines, and generally prune and simplify them. It also adds the more
common needed surface mount space/trace grid sizes of 6, 7, 8, and 9 mils.

Also attached are before and after pictures of the menus.

I'm a new PCB user, and my first impression of the byzantine menus would
have made me run back to Eagle if use of PCB wasn't a project requirement.

I hope you will consider these cosmetic changes.

We are using PCB for the AMSAT Fox amateur radio cubsat satellite design.

[Andrew Poelstra (asp11)]

For the most part, this looks good.

However, the "to buffer" text on cut/copy/paste is useful, since it highlights the fact that pcb has multiple paste buffers. Also, the text "20%" on zoom in/out provides useful information.

If it weren't for those two things, I'd push this right away. Thanks in particular for not changing the accelerators around.

Also, in future, please use "git diff" to generate your patches; this way, we get author information and file changes in the diff file, and it's a format we're more used to reading.

[braddock (braddock)]

I would argue that a new user will only know to use one buffer, and only be confused by the "to buffer" text (as I was), while an advanced user will know how buffers operate. If the text was "Cut to current buffer", then that may have aided me in discovery of the multiple buffers. I guess I prefer that.

I am happy to make either change (and the Zoom "20%") at your direction and resubmit, or you can edit the gpcb-menu.res.in after patching yourself very easily.

[Bert Timmerman (bert-timmerman)]

Hi Braddock,
Thanks for sending the diff ;-)
I just patched it on my local git repository and I see we have a "Select all visible" and "Unselect all" with accelerators in the "Edit" pull down menu, and "Select all visible" and "Unselect all" without accelerators in the "Select" pull down menu.
I think one of those should be dropped.
I further think that separating the grids settings of 6, 7, 8 and 9 mils in another (git) patch would help to get this into the main stream git pcb repository, and how about adding the metric versions for those grids as well.
Oh, and before I forget: "git patches" do save making up an commit message by developers and would give you the credits.

This all being said about your diff, I think a much more thorough change/regrouping of the pull down menus could be considered.
As it is now, a lot of "editing" like commands (editing or changing content of the artwork) remain scattered among other pull down menus.

For instance the "cut" and "paste" operations with buffers in the "buffer" pull down menu could be renamed to "cut buffer" and "paste buffer" to get these stand out against the "cut" and "paste" also available in the "Edit" pull down menu, which have the same functionality.
Even better could be to make the "buffer" pull down menu into a submenu of the "edit" menu.
OTOH, this pull down menu might become too large this way.

We could have some of the functions for rats from the "select" and "connects" pull down menus combined.
Same for autorouter and toporouter stuff, same for post routing "optimizing" and "touch up" functions, these could al go into a "Routing" pull down menu.
Maybe "Thin draw" and "Thin draw poly" could go under the "view" pull down menu, not sure about that one.

Anyway, here is my stab for an "improved" menu (YMMV, which depends on customs and taste).

One thing I do realize is that most of live in a "LtoR" world, and I have no clue how the "RtoL" locales handle these menus.

Kind regards, Bert Timmerman.

[braddock (braddock)]

Attached is a new revision of the menu standardization patch to reflect the feedback received.

Namely:
"Cut" -> "Cut to buffer"
"Copy" -> "Copy to buffer"
"Paste" -> "Paste buffer"
Additional grid sizes (6mil to 9mil) removed.
"Zoom In/Out" -> "Zoom In/Out 20%"
Patch created with "git diff"

-braddock