Possible Improvements to Cycle Editor

[Jeff0S]

From OuttrOMu...@gmail.com on April 24, 2013 01:40:44

Hi again, I've been using the cycle action editor a lot lately and I wanted to suggest a couple changes that would really speed up creating cycle actions for users (me).

1. "If's" and "If-Not's" require "End-If's." Would be much faster if adding an "If" or a "Not-If" would automatically add the "End-If," (2 clicks per statement instead of 4).
2. Similarly, with these new conditional statements, I very often find myself adding actions in pairs. Would be nice to also have an action in the context menu to add two instances of the same action ("Add/Insert 2 of Selected Action").
3. Since we don't have drag and drop from the Actions window the the CAE window, building up our actions uses "Add/Insert Selected Action (in the actions window)" most frequently. Would be much quicker if this was at the top of the context menu.
4. More of a nitpick, but in overhauling my own menu's from scratch, I found that my eyes get confused reading redundant wording in numerous, consecutively listed actions. "Add/Insert" is redundant in the context menu of the CAE and in my opinion, would less confusing as a title to the menu rather than part of the action:

Ideally, like this:

 ADD/INSERT:

Selected Action (in the actions window)
2 of Selected Action
Instruction
Step
Command

(I don't know how to use the command action, so that's the only reason I put it at the bottom, but this way the eye can just scan down for one key, capitalized word, instead of reading "Add/Insert 5 times and potentially getting confused (as in my case :))

Thanks!
-Poofox

Original issue: http://code.google.com/p/sws-extension/issues/detail?id=565

[Jeff0S]

From jeffos...@gmail.com on April 26, 2013 07:04:16

Thanks for entering a ticket
1: good call, coming soon!
2: no sorry (I see your point but that menu item would be confusing for most users IMO). Note: the action remains selected in the 'Actions' window => does not cost much + you have copy/paste too...
3: will do but FYI there is a reson: menus are always sorted alphabetically
4: will rather simplify the wordings. "insert command" just let's you enter things manually, I'll rename it "insert free command" to make it clear (if you have a better English wording to propose, lemme know!)

Status: Started
Owner: jeffos...@gmail.com

[Jeff0S]

From jeffos...@gmail.com on April 26, 2013 16:26:46

1, 3 coming soon ( r1064 )

Status: Done

[Jeff0S]

From OuttrOMu...@gmail.com on April 27, 2013 13:14:36

well that was fast! as to #4, the least confusing wording for me would be "Manually Type Command ID," or "Add via Command ID." "free command," imo is not literal enough. and perhaps just choosing "add" or "insert" instead of "add/insert" would suffice. for me, more important is the write Menu Entries as Titles (with capitalization. It's much easier to find a key word scanning the entries for capital letters. It's one of the main reasons I spent so much time redoing the Reaper menus from scratch, and just a suggestion.

1. I agree menus should sort alphabetically by default, but I usually make an exception for very short lists and actions which get used very often (always at the top). alphabetical is more useful for long lists, but having the most useful actions at the top is even more critical in long lists, too...
2. what about a little dialog for "add multiple instances of selected action"? sometimes i'm adding up to 8 of the same action. and sometimes i realize too late that it's the wrong action and have to redo it! very tedious. hope you'll reconsider. one will realise quickly enough the usefulness of adding actions several at a time. if one is confused or deterred easily, one will not be messing with cycle actions in the first place. but i guess you're right, I maybe just didn't pay attention to the copy/paste entries, unless they were just added in the latest release.

one unrelated question: is python worth learning as an intro programming language and probably the only one i will bother to learn? I'd like to do stuff like this for reaper myself, but unless i can do a lot of other things with the knowledge, i probably won't spend the time.

thanks again!

[Jeff0S]

From OuttrOMu...@gmail.com on April 05, 2014 17:14:56

Hi again. Not sure if any devs will see this since it's a closed issue, but these changes got unimplemented in recent versions, so I wanted to restate my case:

Maybe not for you devs, but certainly for most end users, "Add Selected Action (in Actions Window) will be most often used. It should be at the top of the list. "Add" should be second, for those in the know.

And as far as "plain english" goes, "Add/Insert" is vague and unclear. "Add/Insert Command ID" would be much more descriptive. Also "Statement" is also too general and unclear to the layman. "Condition" would be much more specific and to the point, since not all statements are conditional.

One last thing: I originally got you guys to agree to add END statements for the conditions, perhaps you could take it a step further and automatically delete any extra END statements when adding a condition? E.g. I add an IF by accident, delete it and add a NOT IF instead. Now i have an extra END statement unless I notice it or I apply changes and get a warning. Would be cool if adding a new condition would fix that automatically. Nitpicking...

Btw, the indented conditions do make the cycle actions much easier to read, thanks for that.

If I don't get any response to this, I'll open a new issue.

Thanks again!

[Jeff0S]

From jeffos...@gmail.com on April 06, 2014 06:44:12

Yes we even read closed issues :)
I've well noted the possible improvements, thanks! They won't cost much... However, I won't rename "Statement" into "Condition", e.g. LOOP is not a condition.