On 10/22/07, John Van Pelt <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I think David was clear in explaining his objection was based on usability, > not aesthetics. In Zyzzyva, in many cases, there is not much more to be done > with (clicking) the mouse. Thus the use of a tooltip to display ancillary > information may be elegant. In Quackle, especially over the board area (as > opposed to the Game History list) the mouse is constantly in use for > selecting squares. Rapid access to clicking or double-clicking a square is > vital, and you may take this for granted. I think it would be a travesty if > popup tooltips suddenly blossomed everywhere you happened to move your mouse, > not only obscuring the board (talk about board vision) but also possibly > absorbing your clicks, making them useless. > > On the other hand, providing some of this information via contextual > (popup/dropdown) menus, perhaps with a right-click of the mouse, or a > CTRL-click, ALT-click, or SHIFT-click, could be be useful. Then the ancillary > information would at least be under the control of the user, and rapidly > dismissed when not needed. >
The tooltip is much more convenient for the type of user that particularly values that information. There could simply be an easy way to turn the tooltip definitions on and off (via the menu and/or a CTRL key sequence). The default should probably be off. Steve > -John > > > > On 10/22/07, Stewart Holden <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > David Jones wrote: > > > On Saturday 20 October 2007 23:32, graham101ia wrote: > > > > > >> 4. There are several nice features which could be added involving > > >> displaying information based on where a mouse pointer is hovering. I > > >> suggest displaying the meaning of a word hovered over would be one > > >> such nice enhancement. Additional enhancements might include > > >> different information displayed, perhaps based on duration of hover, > > >> or hover in combination with a mouse button down or keyboard press. > > >> Other information which could, perhaps, be displayed are front and > > >> back hooks/extensions for the word hovered over and anagrams of the > > >> word. Hovering over an empty square could call up, as a tooltip, any > > >> words which could be played through that square using the player's > > >> current rack. > > > > > > I have noticed this scourge creeping into many other applications. NO! > > > NO! > > > NO! What are you possibly thinking? > > > > > > Tooltips are not for displaying ancilliary information. This information > > > will > > > interfere with selection of items with the mouse, as the tooltip opens up > > > underneath the mouse, and absorbs any clicks while it is displayed. > > > > > > If you must, display information elsewhere on screen, but never with a > > > tooltip. > > > > > > > > I disagree. I don't think you should sacrifice obvious usefulness just > > because it doesn't agree with your aesthetic principles. The tooltip > > mouse hovering thing in Zyzzyva is beautiful, giving the definitions of > > hook words. Are you saying that should be dropped too? > > > > Quackle has many opportunities for enhancement in this way and sometimes > > displaying onscreen isn't practical. I say go for it. > > > > Stewart > > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > > >
