Re: [udig-devel] UI inspiration from google maps?

[Chris Holmes <chomie@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 9/18/05, Amit Kulkarni <amitkulz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Remove the pan button, by default when we drag the map using mouse, the
> pan kicks in.
Eh.  This to me would imply you'd remove rubber band zooming, since
that's the reason for the pan button, to switch back and forth between
panning and zooming.  I much prefer to be able to specify my zoom,
rather than to center the map and hit the slider.

I'm pretty sure the reason google does the slider is because of the
tiling - they only have that number of zoom levels.

One thing I do like about google's panning though is the double click
to center it.  That could be a nice little feature to add.

> 
> Remove zoom-in and zoom-out, instead have a slider bar with - and + on
> either sides.
I do think a slider bar would be nicer than the zoom in and out
buttons.  I must admit I get confused by them - trying to hit the
rubber band zooming and accidentally hitting zoom in.  The wheel
zooming is great, the slider could just replicate that, but have a
nicer UI for it.  I think the slider should actually slide, like MS
Virtual Earth, instead of just having the little tick marks.

> 
> What do you all think? Is it too wild?
One nice thing about udig is the pluggability, so I imagine you fairly
easily could make a google maps style UI, that users could choose to
use if they wanted.  I wouldn't put it as the default, though the
slider idea is good.  But it could be a nice option.

Chris

> 
> I am going to suggest the same to a commercial vendor at a meeting with
> their developers.
> 
> 
> 
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