Wednesday 13 July 2005 13:41, Casper Boemann wrote:
I'm writing the selection chapter of the manual and it hidme that we should
rename the two special select tools "selection picker" and "select
contiguous"

The "selection picker" should be "select similar" because that it what it
does. It doesn't pick anything - not like the color picker anyway

Well It selects pixels with a color similar to the color you pick; that's
why it's got a color picker icon. That's where it got its name. The Photoshop
equivalent is the select-by-colorrange dialog.

And "select contiguous" should be "flood selecting" or "select flood"
This one is called "magic wand" in photoshop and possible other
applications too. In fact our icon is a magic wand which seem a bit
confusing. However I don't think we should call it magic wand - it is
pretty non-descriptive for new users. I just learned that now, and I have
been using photoshop on and off for a number of years, but have never felt
compelled to learn a tool with such a weird name. Had the name said "this
is what I do - I might be useful" then I would have investigated it
further. "Select contiguous" is not too bad, but since the function is very
similar to normal flood filling I think that "flood selecting" would be
more descriptive.

Do we have floodfill as a user-visible somewhere? I thought we didn't. If so,
I'd be for renaming it to "fill contiguous area" because floodfill is a term
that's bound to be incomprehensible to non-programmers. I agree that magic
want is a useless name, and perhaps we should replace the icon with a fill
bucket in a selection area?

selection tool we really sorely miss is the lasso tool, by the way.

Wednesday 13 July 2005 13:48, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
And "select contiguous" should be "flood selecting" or "select flood"
This one is called "magic wand" in photoshop and possible other
applications too. In fact our icon is a magic wand which seem a bit
confusing. However I don't think we should call it magic wand - it is
pretty non-descriptive for new users. I just learned that now, and I have
been using photoshop on and off for a number of years, but have never
felt compelled to learn a tool with such a weird name. Had the name said
"this is what I do - I might be useful" then I would have investigated it
further. "Select contiguous" is not too bad, but since the function is
very similar to normal flood filling I think that "flood selecting" would
be more descriptive.

Do we have floodfill as a user-visible somewhere? I thought we didn't. If
so, I'd be for renaming it to "fill contiguous area" because floodfill is a
term that's bound to be incomprehensible to non-programmers. I agree that
magic want is a useless name, and perhaps we should replace the icon with a
fill bucket in a selection area?
I buy this one. So "Select contiguous" it is. And the icon idea I like too,
especially if we change "Fill" to "Fill contiguous"

The "selection picker" should be "select similar" because that it what it
does. It doesn't pick anything - not like the color picker anyway

Well It selects pixels with a color similar to the color you pick;
that's why it's got a color picker icon. That's where it got its name. The
Photoshop equivalent is the select-by-colorrange dialog.
I still like "Select similar" better. Your argument could just as well have
applied to "select contiguous" it also picks the color and floods with it as
an argument.

I don't think the picker has much to do with the function of this tool.
Consequently the icon should be changed too. I just don't know to what.
Perhabs an equal sign in a selection area.

selection tool we really sorely miss is the lasso tool, by the way.
Yes, but now that we have "Freehand Select" it should be a bit easier to
implement.

Also. the names are sometimes "Select xxx" and sometimes "xxx Select"

But anyway the selections tools should work like the paint tools right? With
freehand,rect, choosen seperately from the paint tool

Wednesday 13 July 2005 14:13, Casper Boemann wrote:

I buy this one. So "Select contiguous" it is. And the icon idea I like
too, especially if we change "Fill" to "Fill contiguous"

That's okay with me.

The "selection picker" should be "select similar" because that it what
it does. It doesn't pick anything - not like the color picker anyway

Well It selects pixels with a color similar to the color you pick;
that's why it's got a color picker icon. That's where it got its name.
The Photoshop equivalent is the select-by-colorrange dialog.

I still like "Select similar" better. Your argument could just as well have
applied to "select contiguous" it also picks the color and floods with it
as an argument.

-- "select similar" is okay with me. we've got a good idea for an
icon. Keep in mind that Photoshop uses the same icon and cursor shape -- a
picker -- for the same selection tool.

I don't think the picker has much to do with the function of this tool.
Consequently the icon should be changed too. I just don't know to what.
Perhabs an equal sign in a selection area.

selection tool we really sorely miss is the lasso tool, by the way.

Yes, but now that we have "Freehand Select" it should be a bit easier to
implement.

It's a quite different thing, the lasso tool should select the closest edge
between colors near where we paint. That's a different tool, not a different
paintop. Tools determine where painting occurs, paintops how. But a tool that
paints against an edge could be very useful outside selections, too.

Also. the names are sometimes "Select xxx" and sometimes "xxx Select"

A native speaker should pronounce about this. I'm not sure anymore

But anyway the selections tools should work like the paint tools right?
With freehand, rect, choosen seperately from the paint tool

In a sense, yes. But with selections, it's not really useful to have paint,
pen (well, perhaps that one _is_ useful), airbrush or duplicate and so on. So
I thought I'd keep the status quo for the selection tools, as it were, until
inspiration arrives.

Wednesday 13 July 2005 14:25, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
selection tool we really sorely miss is the lasso tool, by the way.

Yes, but now that we have "Freehand Select" it should be a bit easier to
implement.

It's a quite different thing, the lasso tool should select the closest edge
between colors near where we paint. That's a different tool, not a
different paintop. Tools determine where painting occurs, paintops how. But
a tool that paints against an edge could be very useful outside selections,
too.
I know what the _magnetic_ lasso tool does. I think you mis-remembered what
Select Freehand does. It is not the selectbrush, but actually what photoshop
calls the lasso. Perhabs we should rename "Select freehand" to "select
outline" or something

The magnetic lasso (when we implement it) we could then call the "Select
magnetic outline"

Wednesday 13 July 2005 14:46, Casper Boemann wrote:

I know what the _magnetic_ lasso tool does. I think you mis-remembered what
Select Freehand does. It is not the selectbrush, but actually what
photoshop calls the lasso. Perhabs we should rename "Select freehand" to
"select outline" or something

The magnetic lasso (when we implement it) we could then call the "Select
magnetic outline"

You're absolutely right and I was absolutely confused :-).

Wednesday 13 July 2005 14:25, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
-- "select similar" is okay with me. we've got a good idea for an
icon. Keep in mind that Photoshop uses the same icon and cursor shape -- a
picker -- for the same selection tool.

For what it is worth, Photoshop uses the term "sampled colors" for the
subdivision of the colorrange dialog that I implemented as a separate tool.

Wednesday 13 July 2005 16:13, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
Wednesday 13 July 2005 14:25, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
-- "select similar" is okay with me. we've got a good idea for
an icon. Keep in mind that Photoshop uses the same icon and cursor shape
-- a picker -- for the same selection tool.

For what it is worth, Photoshop uses the term "sampled colors" for the
subdivision of the colorrange dialog that I implemented as a separate tool.
yes, but it is within the context of "Selecting a color range"

Wednesday 13 July 2005 16:27, Casper Boemann wrote:
Wednesday 13 July 2005 16:13, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
Wednesday 13 July 2005 14:25, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
-- "select similar" is okay with me. we've got a good idea
for an icon. Keep in mind that Photoshop uses the same icon and cursor
shape -- a picker -- for the same selection tool.

For what it is worth, Photoshop uses the term "sampled colors" for the
subdivision of the colorrange dialog that I implemented as a separate
tool.

yes, but it is within the context of "Selecting a color range"

That's exactly what our tool does.

Wednesday 13 July 2005 16:29, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
Wednesday 13 July 2005 16:27, Casper Boemann wrote:
Wednesday 13 July 2005 16:13, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
Wednesday 13 July 2005 14:25, Boudewijn Rempt wrote:
-- "select similar" is okay with me. we've got a good idea
for an icon. Keep in mind that Photoshop uses the same icon and
cursor shape -- a picker -- for the same selection tool.

For what it is worth, Photoshop uses the term "sampled colors" for the
subdivision of the colorrange dialog that I implemented as a separate
tool.

yes, but it is within the context of "Selecting a color range"

That's exactly what our tool does.
Yes but my point is that the name doesn't say so
the name should say:
"Select a colorrange where colors are similar to the picked"

in my mind "Select similar" is much closer to that than "Selection Picker"

Wednesday 13 July 2005 16:34, Casper Boemann wrote:

Yes but my point is that the name doesn't say so
the name should say:
"Select a colorrange where colors are similar to the picked"

in my mind "Select similar" is much closer to that than "Selection Picker"

Yes, I agree. I'll change the name, and keep the icon for now.