Algodoo

Interesting scene!

But.... I have a question and a couple of issues as follow:

1. Since all properties of any Algodoo geometry can be viewed normally with just a couple of mouse clicks, why would anyone want to learn a new feature which is honestly not an improvement over the original method of showing properties?

2. If you did it just because you like to design interesting features and functions with Algodoo, well, that's Okay then, and I can fully understand and appreciate what you have done!

3. The "Enable" button label changes to "Disable" but you do not mention anything about it in the instructions. I realize that some things are obvious to most people, and therefore do not need instructions, but occasionally some people might be confused about buttons, gauges, knobs, or indicator lights which are not explained. Things that may be obvious or intuitive to you and me, may not be obvious or intuitive to others.

4. One of the instructions reads: "Enter a comma separated list of properties you would like to display." and an arrow points to the rectangular window that's located in the GUI widget. That is a little misleading because text cannot be written in that window. Clicking on the window only causes the text entry window to display next to the GUI widget.

5. If I click more than once on the rectangular text window in the GUI widget, more than one text entry panel can pop up on the right hand side. There could be a large number of text entry panels hidden behind the one in front without the user knowing about it. Maybe a warning message of some sort should state something like "Do not click on the text window more than one time for each use of this widget".

Sorry that I'm being so picky with your scenes, but I know that you would do the same for me which I do appreciate. A programmer is not the best person to critique his/her own code. You will always get better input from someone else who is not familiar with how your code is designed! The best person for finding bugs is the actual end-user.

In spite of the few things that I have found, you did a great job of designing and coding this scene (as usual)!

1. If I want to see a single property for several items at once, then the standard Algodoo property widgets are hard to organize and obstruct the scene. The info boxes this scene generates are smaller, translucent, and can be a permanent part of a scene or just used temporarily.

2. This allows a user to make permanent property displays without any coding. The design is made to make things easier. If it doesn't do that for a user, then he should not use it.

3. I expect the user to learn some things by trying it out. If they can't figure out the enable/disable button then they should not use the widget.

4. You are correct. I could not figure out another way to have a user enter text while in design mode.

5. You are correct. I don't know how to code against that behavior. Sometimes, if the behavior causes no damage, then I allow a user to experience the behavior instead of posting warnings.

Although the answers above may seem somewhat defensive, I do appreciate the feedback.

Quote: "I could not figure out another way to have a user enter text while in design mode."

Here is one possible way to enter text. It's a scene that I developed while we were still using lasers for decoding the keyboard, but as kilinich mentioned in his comment, the lasers could be replaced with keys.isDown or onKey functions. Here is a link to my scene if you want to try this or something like it: Keyboard Decoder

I had checked your scene out before choosing to go with the Algodoo text box. What I found out was that , in design mode, onKey along with e.keycode and e.keychar were not available. keys.IsDown does work, but then I figured I would need to make an array with every possible key press and iterate thru the array checking to see if a key was pressed. I would also need to check for special keys like space, delete, and backspace. I would also need to ensure that the keys don't automatically repeat. At that point I figured even if I did that, the result would not be any better than the widget that Algodoo already supplies. I may still give it a try.

Cool!

I like the way it works now. Good job!

Thanks.