Handle to guide timeout

[elecman]

When the cursor is moved over a handle or grid intersection and with an appropriate tool selected (such as drawing a rectangle), the cursor snaps to a location and displays for example "Handle to guide", "Handle to grid", etc. This is great. But this indication will disappear after a short timeout.

This is unexpected behavior and I think it is better to not have any timeout, or at least offer an option to disable this.

OS: Windows 7
InkScape: 0.91

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Please add information about OS/platform and Inkscape version (see Inkscape menu 'Help > About Inkscape') to the bug description.

[elecman (bitbarrelmedia)]

Ok, requested information added.

[Brynn (brynn4inks-deactivatedaccount)]

Just an opinion: I think it would be better to have this optional, because if it were remaining longer, it could clutter the view of either existing parts of the drawing or other potential snap targets.

[elecman (bitbarrelmedia)]

Yes, an option for a feature is always a good idea.

[Diederik van Lierop (mail-diedenrezi)]

This can already be done; just set the delay to zero!

Edit -> Preferences -> Behaviour -> Snapping -> Delay (in ms)

[Diederik van Lierop (mail-diedenrezi)]

BTW, whether you like a delay or not really depends strongly on user preference, the way of working, and the complexity of the documents. In very complex documents not snapping immediately makes Inkscape much more responsive. Also, if zoomed in on a course grid, the snapped point can jump around the screen in big steps making it difficult to track. That's why this delay has been made configurable, with the default value of 150 ms being a compromise.

[elecman (bitbarrelmedia)]

I agree that it should be configurable because as you say, it depends on user preference. But setting that delay to zero does not solve the problem of the disappearing indication.

To reproduce.
-Open inkScape 0.91
-Enable the button "Snap nodes, guides and handles".
-Create a horizontal guide.
-Go to Edit -> Preferences -> Behaviour -> Snapping -> Delay and set to 0.
-Close the preferences window.
-Select the rectangle tool.
-Move the cursor over the guide (without dragging).
-Note the popup "Handle to Guide".
-Do not move the cursor and after a second or so, the popup disappears.

[Diederik van Lierop (mail-diedenrezi)]

Ah sorry, I read your report twice but still managed to miss your point! I thought it was about the snap delay, but its not. My fault!

This is the relevant piece of code; please note the comment at the end of the line ;-)

const int timeout_val = 1200; // TODO add preference for snap indicator timeout?

I'm not sure though if we should add more configurability here; See https://www.activecollab.com/blog/9-software-configurability.html

We could just as well set this value to 2000 ms, that would already be a big increase. Or even to 4000 ms maybe? I don't think
that we should keep it around much longer.

Why do you want to keep it longer? Is it just that the time to read is too short now?

[elecman (bitbarrelmedia)]

I understand that not everything should be configurable. It is a good point. However, in this particular case, I find myself moving my cursor to the desired location, and thinking a bit if it is correct or appropriate and suddenly the popup disappears.

I think 4000 ms should be ok.

[Diederik van Lierop (mail-diedenrezi)]

OK, clear; I've set the timeout to 4000 ms in rev. 13923

[elecman (bitbarrelmedia)]

Thanks :-)

[su_v (suv-lp)]

@Diederik - could we please make this timeout configurable? I never had the need for longer display of those snapping messages in the past, and now - when working with trunk - the much longer timeout constantly gets in my way in every step (obscuring what I need to see in preparing the next step, and giving the impression that one has to wait until Inkscape is done pondering about past snapping until one can grab, drag and snap again).

[elecman (schouten-tjeerd-m)]

I think a configurable timeout would be best too.

[Diederik van Lierop (mail-diedenrezi)]

Will do!

[su_v (suv-lp)]

On 2015-04-06 22:24 (+0200), ~suv wrote:
> and giving the impression that one has to wait until Inkscape is done
> pondering about past snapping until one can grab, drag and snap
> again

The underlying issue which created this impression (it may be trivial but has a tendency to interrupt workflows): the area where the 'x' for the snapped target is displayed is not 'click-through' - the object can't be (re-)grabbed for dragging in that area while the snap target indicator is still displayed.

The effect is that if the pointer position is near where the last snap occurred, the object can't quickly be regrabbed until the snap message has disappeared. With small objects, this can prevent grabbing unless one zooms in closer, or waits until the (now longer) snap delay has passed. Note that this is all happening _after_ snapping already occurred, and may force the user to pause, or to search for a grabbable reagion of the selected object.

I encountered this while inserting objects onto the canvas (from the symbols dialog), with grid visible and grid snapping active: the location of the dropped symbol often needs to be readjusted (i.e. correctly snapped to the grid) right after dropping it.

[Diederik van Lierop (mail-diedenrezi)]

Hi ~suv,

The snap indicator should no longer interfere with your workflow, as of revision #14201. It should now be fully transparent to any events, whether it's grabbing, scrolling, clicking or anything else.

This bug was related to that which you reported five years ago, see your last paragraph in https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/522335/comments/8

Now this bug should have been squashed for good I hope!

BTW, I still plan to make the snap delay configurable, but haven't gotten to that yet. So do not close this bug report just yet!

[Diederik van Lierop (mail-diedenrezi)]

The snap indicator delay is configurable as of rev. 14253

[su_v (suv-lp)]

Fix for issue described in comment #15 backported to lp:inkscape/0.91.x in rev 13780.