I can follow your reasoning. But i think that a modifier+mouse still is a more complicated action than a single key action, it's definitely a 2 hand action with a higher level of complexity, also taking into account the brain has to recall which modifier combi has to be triggered for the action you have in mind wheres MuLab's screen popup is easier on the mind as it implicitly gives you a memo about the options AND it only takes a single key which is an easier action, imho.robenestobenz wrote:The thing is, with the way muscle memory works, using a modifier is a single action. Psychologically, it's 'resize relative', 'resize absolute', because you do it at the same time as the action of dragging. They're just different sorts of drags. Using a key is a separate action from the drag, necessarily coming after it; 'resize, followed by...'.mutools wrote:No speed bump necessary as you could move your keyboard hand to the first character of your option eg [R] to repeat the events into the new area when you have increased the sequence length. In my opinion it's a far more elegant solution than those archaic / cryptic modifiers. And remember: No modifiers on a pure touch screen. So this screen-based way of doing it can survive on a touch screen.
Going deeper into this would need real scientific ergonomic research. Would be interesting, but i can't afford. My conclusion is that both methods may be almost equivalent wrt time-to-execute, but there also seems to be the subjective aspect about which method you feel best with. For you and some others that's using modifiers. For others (including myself) that's not using modifiers.
You may be right. I'm not yet concrete enough into touchscreen programming to evaluate your statement. I'm simply trying to already take it into account. Like wrt using modifiers i.e. relying on them as little as possible.Take the point about it not working for touchscreens though, but designing for both mouse and touchscreen is a path to nowhere IMO. You need to fork your app to do that. Touch and mouse input are fundamentally different enough that you can't hope to give both sets of users the quality of experience they expect at the same time. (hey there, Windows
Well it's clear we have a fundamental different view on the use of modifiers. All respect for your other view. I assume you also prefer Reaper?