> It seems to be the standard ever since the Mac brought the Xerox interface > to the mainstream... > It is the case on pretty much every program that supports dragging of > objects even word for windows...
Most applications, including Word, have no concept of wires or tracks, so I don't understand your argument. Kicad both allows you to move a component with wire/tracks attached, and without, but obviously it's up to you to chose which you want, either from the context menu or by using the keyboard modifiers. It's worth saying that one of the problems with schematic capture and board layout is the sheer number of things a mouse operation might mean, and the user would, of course, like the application to guess correctly the meaning of every one. The kicad interface deals with that complexity pretty well IMHO. > Maybe you don't now, but wouldn't you use it when laying out a board? No, I hardly ever use drag for anything in kicad because kicad isn't a push-and-shove router. For that kind of functionality kicad does provide an interface to Freerouter. Have you tried it? > Right click of course does that I know, but read my description of the > standard again, it should also be able to do it on multiple items selected - > but selecting multiple items isn't even supported yet! You can select multiple items and right-click for a context menu. It does not, I grant you, allow you to edit a common set of properties; I can imagine that coming up with a set of rules to determine what any combination of kicad objects have in common would be interesting. One handy feature of kicad is that the files are text files, so you can (as I did recently) implement bulk edits with nothing more exotic than a text editor. Kicad is not perfect, but if the interface is not as you personally would like it there are options open to you, ranging from asking on this list ways of doing things all the way through to modifying the code yourself. And for this you pay not one single penny. Compare that with the spectacularly expensive commercial offerings that have seriously flawed and seriously weird stone-age interfaces. Regards, Robert.
