chris wrote:Well, you'll be disappointed because I do think that OpenGL windows (supported nicely by Qt4) and hideable controls are important steps for getting an uncluttered UI.
Why disappointed? As a end user yes if you don't care about cluttering the OGL view. But at dev level it's your choice. If you say I don't want permanent UI in the OGL windows it's one thing and if you say i don't care, what I want is total brute control, it's another thing.
chris wrote:The context menu approach that you advocate simply isn't adequate for all the things that I think Celestia needs to be able to do. So, while I agree that the context menu is an important part of the UI, I don't see how can be the central part--and certainly not the only part--of Celestia's UI. To take a very simple example: how can I toggle the visibility of an object with the context menu? Hiding is easy, but showing it? There's nothing left to click on!
I feel strongly that add-ons need to have some user-visible representation in Celestia, and that the concept of add-on needs to be extended to include scripts, camera views, documentation, and meta-information. I don't know how this can be done when all the UI is in the context menu, which seems to me to be based strictly on objects.
I never said the contextual menu (as it is now - my above idea is something else -) should be the only part of the UI neither the central part. What I do advocate is to centralize in the contextual menu all functions tide to an object. A script do something to an object? A celUrl point to a specific part of an object? A media or whatever meta data is about an object? All this IMO could be easily triggered from the contextual menu of this object. That's what I'm saying, nothing more. Now, I do base this comment on addons that do represent something clickable.
I guess the basic example of the invisible object is a nebulae, right? Are we sure such body will always be invisible? I mean no placeholder or other graphical solutions will be implemented in the future? And let's say it is what it is, an invisible object. Couldn't it be triggered by the stars within? Something like "Show parent Nebulae"? (Note that these are some quick thoughts on the fly, no deep concept...)
What else can be invisible or immaterial?
What kind of script or media will never point to something visible or clickable? (that can not be used as support?)
Now ok, let's say the contextual menu is not ideal; what other way do we have?