DRC window should not close when error is double clicked

[Urs Obernolte]

The DRC window should not close when the error is double clicked. Today its quite normal to have 2 monitors or a big enough monitor to have both windows on screen at the same time. It is rather annoying that you have to open it up again and again.

[Laurent Haas (efcis)]

A single click pans the PCB and doesn't close the DRC window, but unfortunately the cursor isn't located right on the marker as the double-click does, and if there are several marker in the area, it's not always easy to locate what marker it is. It would be useful to get the marker in question colored differently.

[Seth Hillbrand (sethh)]

@Urs- Please be sure to include your version information like the following.

Application: kicad
Version: (5.1.0-rc2-39-gcf876dfd18-dirty), release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.64.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1a zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) libssh2/1.8.0 nghttp2/1.36.0 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Linux 4.19.0-2-amd64 x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 3.24
    Boost: 1.67.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.64.0
    Compiler: Clang 7.0.1 with C++ ABI 1002

Build settings:
    USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
    USE_WX_OVERLAY=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

[Seth Hillbrand (sethh)]

@Laurent- Right click on the text to get the items in question. These will be highlighted.

[Laurent Haas (efcis)]

@Seth - Thank you for the tip !

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

What bug are we fixing here the highlighting or the double behavior? The current double click behavior is by design so we need to clarify what exactly it is we are fixing and get some consensus before making any changes.

[Seth Hillbrand (sethh)]

I'm thinking highlight and center the currently selected marker. Leave double-click as is.

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

I think it already centres.

Highlighting would be good. But when do we turn it off? (Maybe it can just stay on since it's a marker, and only turn it off when we highlight another?)

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

Or maybe unhighlight when closing the dialog?

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

I think highlighting the drc marker the issue. I'm guessing leaving the current drc error marker highlighted until another drc error is selected or the dialog is closed (assuming it's hidden modeless dialog) is the desired behavior.

[Urs Obernolte (urs-obernolte)]

Yeah, I think higlighting the marker and the two objects who are causing the error would be great. I got so many errors in my view that i didn´t realized the new centering when clicking the next list entry.

[Urs Obernolte (urs-obernolte)]

Application: kicad
Version: (5.0.2)-1, release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.61.1 OpenSSL/1.1.1 (WinSSL) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.6 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) nghttp2/1.34.0
Platform: Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
    Boost: 1.68.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.61.1
    Compiler: GCC 8.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
    USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
    USE_WX_OVERLAY=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

[zakhar nasimov (thedocument)]

Dock the DRC window much like browsers or spreadsheet programs have a docked search function and let users scroll thru DRC issues.

[Jon Evans (craftyjon)]

@Wayne what about changing the behavior so that we focus back on the main window on double-click instead of closing the DRC dialog outright? I also think that closing the window on double-click is not great UX.

I think in V6 we should figure out a better way to have the DRC list always visible (either make it somehow dockable, or move the DRC list into a pane that is part of the main window)

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

@Jon, what you are proposing is going to require a modeless dialog which is a lot more effort. Once you allow the user to edit the schematic, the information in the dialog may be invalid so you have to sync the information between the two. I don't see how you can do what you are proposing with a modal or quasi-modal dialog. I'm fine with this as long as you careful with your implementation.

[Jon Evans (craftyjon)]

OK so that is a bigger project, perhaps for V6 we can think about ways to improve the UX.

For this issue, since this behavior is by design, do we want to consider changing it now, or leave it be for V5? I don't like the behavior, but I would understand if we don't want to change intended behavior in a bugfix release.

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

Wayne appears to be talking about the ERC dialog (which is not modeless).

The DRC dialog already is modeless.

But I wouldn't change any of this stuff for 5.1....

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

I didn't realize the DRC is now modeless but I do know that the ERC is modal. I agree with Jeff. Let's avoid making any more major UI changes to 5.1 and come up with a plan to improve the DRC UI during v6. What ever UI changes we make, I would like the DRC and ERC UIs to be the same for the sake of consistency.

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

In 6.0 right-clicking on the DRC list item allows you to roll over the conflicting items and have them brightened (similar to Clarify Selection menu). This worked on some platforms in 5.1.

6.0 also selects the marker when the DRC item is clicked, highlighting it.