On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 11:19 PM, JDS <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> I disagree. People know how to select text. Let's not make them >> change their habits to use this app. Also, having multiple different >> types of selection seems like it would be very confusing. If you can >> just select some text and see the option to "stage selected lines" we >> get the best of both worlds without imposing multiple different types >> of selection on the user. The addition of a frame that makes it clear >> that staging will extend beyond the user's selection to incorporate >> complete lines makes it even more clear. The user doesn't have to >> learn anything new to use this. > > Users do know how to select text, but to me it's not at all obvious > that if I want to stage some line, I should select a portion of that > line to activate a Stage Line button. Our "selection for stage" has > very different semantics.
I agree, this isn't very intuitive. > Should regular selection be inhibited at chunk boundaries? If not, is > it clear why the "frame" no longer follows the selected text as you > drag? This also kills the "double-click to select contiguous range" > functionality that I personally use quite a bit. > > With the "select the numbers" approach, the indication of selected > lines could be on the numbers themselves (instead of/in addition to > the lines). It may not be obvious to click over there though. Another option would be to use the current selection system to select lines, and make command-C just copy that selection. That way people can use a single selection method, but they're only limited to selecting lines, rather than parts of those lines. I think even now it isn't clear from the UI that dragging on the text allows you to 'select' a part of it to stage / unstage. Changing the system to do both partial selection and line selection at the same time will confuse people even more. I don't think adding a key modifier to choose selection type is anything but a short-term fix. I think two visually distinct ways for both selection types is needed, but I'm not sure how. Perhaps a dragbar on the side or something? It would be nice to indicate visually to users that staging lines is possible.
