Escape key functionality?

"Brett Holden"  wrote

I asked before but I will ask again. Could you guys please make it so that

two taps of the ESCAPE betton will totally deactivate the MOVE command (or

any other command).

 

I agree.

The escape key action needs to be improved. The design decision for the

level it currently escapes back to is wrong and it  should successively

escape back to the "no command selected" state.

Appreciating all the Eagle functionality around the Escape key it is not a

matter of how many hits of the Escape key are needed to achieve a  result

but a matter of the true functionality of that key.

Brett asks for two hits of the key to get back to the idle state of no

command selected. There is a situation where three hits would be required so

its not the number of hits but the need to ESCAPE to the previous level.

If you establish the idle "no command selected" state as the highest level,

the escape key should take you there, step by step, hit by hit.

Currently it stops one step short. It is inefficient to mouse click the stop

button, a Text Command button  or type a ";" in the command line. The

quickest alternate is an Assigned key (say Alt + Q) but that is still

clumsy.

Being able to get to a "no command selected" state, easily, is high on my

want list.

Correcting this oddity would be time well spent.

Warren

warrenbrayshaw wrote on Sat, 13 November 2010 15:30

It is inefficient to mouse click the stop button, a Text Command button

or type a ";" in the command line.

This makes no sense.  It only takes two key strokes (";", Enter) to end any

command.  Whether those two key strokes are semicolon-Enter or Esc-Esc

makes very little difference to the work flow.

In fact I've gotten used to ESC escapes out to a certain level, which is

easy to hit with the left hand.  Semi-Enter is just as easy to hit with the

right hand.  It may be two key strokes, but it's one operation in the

brain.  There is nothing to "fix" here, and trying would just break things.

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warrenbrayshaw wrote on Sat, 13 November 2010 15:30

It is inefficient to mouse click the stop button, a Text Command button

or type a ";" in the command line.

This makes no sense.  It only takes two key strokes (";", Enter) to end any

command.  Whether those two key strokes are semicolon-Enter or Esc-Esc

makes very little difference to the work flow.

In fact I've gotten used to ESC escapes out to a certain level, which is

easy to hit with the left hand.  Semi-Enter is just as easy to hit with the

right hand.  It may be two key strokes, but it's one operation in the

brain.  There is nothing to "fix" here, and trying would just break things.

--

Web access to CadSoft support forums at www.eaglecentral.ca.  Where the CadSoft EAGLE community meets.

Olin Lathrop schrieb:

warrenbrayshaw wrote on Sat, 13 November 2010 15:30

>> It is inefficient to mouse click the stop button, a Text Command button

>>  or type a ";" in the command line.

 

This makes no sense.  It only takes two key strokes (";", Enter) to end any

command.  Whether those two key strokes are semicolon-Enter or Esc-Esc

makes very little difference to the work flow.

Please consider the different keyboard layouts. With my german keyboard,

the semicolon is on top of the comma, so I need to press shift-comma for

it. With the right hand continuously on the trackball, this is

extremely uncomfortable to reach with only the left hand.

Hitting ESC once, twice or any other count is far easier - and more

intuitive, anyway.

In fact I've gotten used to ESC escapes out to a certain level, which is

easy to hit with the left hand.  Semi-Enter is just as easy to hit with the

right hand.  It may be two key strokes, but it's one operation in the

brain.  There is nothing to "fix" here, and trying would just break things.

It is much more comfortable to use only the left hand for single

keyboard actions, so the right hand can stay on the trackball.

That said, I don't see a really urgent need for any change. For me and

in most cases, ESC does what is expected. I rarely need to STOP any

command, most of the time I simply activate the next command - most

often by pressing the related function key (with the left hand, of

course, to keep the right hand at the trackball ).

Tilmann

Tilmann Reh wrote on Wed, 29 December 2010 08:17

That said, I don't see a really urgent need for any change. For me and

in most cases, ESC does what is expected. I rarely need to STOP any

command, most of the time I simply activate the next command - most

often by pressing the related function key (with the left hand, of

course, to keep the right hand at the trackball ).

I agree in that ending a command is a relatively rare operation.  There is

really no problem here to solve.

Most of the time I do what you do.  The right hand is on the mouse and the

left hand hits function keys I have set up for the common operations.  For

example, in the board editor F12 does a RATSNEST and MOVE.  F8 does a

RATSNEST and ROUTE.  F9, F10, and F11 change the grid to different

finenesses, etc.

The times I can remember doing ;-Enter is for cancelling a SHOW, or ending

a WIRE sometimes.  There are probably a few other instances, but they are

rare enough I'm not looking for a quicker way to do them.  Even then, I

should be able to set up a function key if that's what I really wanted.

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