Pane Layouts

Request a new command, feature, or improvement

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SimpleSi
Posts: 330
Joined: Jul 2nd, '17, 13:47

Pane Layouts

Post by SimpleSi » Sep 2nd, '17, 20:06

The ability to resize the working areas has made me think on alternative ways of layout to improve programming experience

At the moment, if you want to maximise the vertical script area - this is at the expense of blocks of the category selected - which is not ideal if your programming and wanting to pick and select blocks to drag down to the script area.

I'd like to suggest that the block picking area and the script area are side by side instead

This would leave the category area under used on the left so i'd propose moving that to be the top most pane across the whole screen (or if not - across the top of the blocks and script areas
gppanes.png
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MSandro
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Joined: Jul 26th, '17, 21:12

Re: Pane Layouts

Post by MSandro » Sep 3rd, '17, 20:44

Nice concept; support!

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Picochilla
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Joined: Sep 23rd, '17, 17:44

Re: Pane Layouts

Post by Picochilla » Sep 25th, '17, 06:15

Nice, support!

SimpleSi
Posts: 330
Joined: Jul 2nd, '17, 13:47

Re: Pane Layouts

Post by SimpleSi » Sep 25th, '17, 14:41

Having used and thought about this more - I've come to realise that the Scratch 1.4 layout is prob the best one as categories at the top still doesn't give full editing height to the scripting pane

With the new GP ability to resize the category/blocks panes of course, so we can widen them to see all the blocks in a category

JohnM
Posts: 379
Joined: Sep 11th, '15, 14:42

Re: Pane Layouts

Post by JohnM » Oct 6th, '17, 21:41

I'll think about other layouts. Meanwhile, I can change the resize limits so you can shrink the entire palette (and it's categories) to just 10 pixels high. If you also shrink the stage, you have a lot space for scripts. The "find" field is still available, and you can use that get blocks if you know their names. Beginners will want to keep the palette visible, but they are less likely to have a lot of scripts.
Screen Shot 2017-10-06 at 5.32.43 PM.png

SimpleSi
Posts: 330
Joined: Jul 2nd, '17, 13:47

Re: Pane Layouts

Post by SimpleSi » Oct 6th, '17, 21:48

I'll think about other layouts. Meanwhile, I can change the resize limits so you can shrink the entire palette (and it's categories) to just 10 pixels high.
Ta :)
If you also shrink the stage, you have a lot space for scripts.
yes - but there seems to be limit on maximum scripting area width when GP is fully occupying the screen
This is as much as I can widen on on my Win10 machine
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JohnM
Posts: 379
Joined: Sep 11th, '15, 14:42

Re: Pane Layouts

Post by JohnM » Oct 6th, '17, 23:00

Oh, right.

That width limit has to do with the maximum texture size.

Technical details: In order to get decent scrolling performance when there are a lot of scripts, GP caches an image of the entire scripting pane as a texture. However, the underlying graphics system GP uses can crash if you try to use a texture larger than that the graphics card supports. Thus, GP picks a conservative limit that should work on most graphics cards. It may be possible have GP get the actual limit from the card and allow you to go up to that limit. I can explore that option...

Meanwhile, the change I've just made will give you a bit more space in the short term.

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