RE: Do Re Mi (was: Q on Text Properties popup menu -shouldn'titusethepointerposition, not the cursor position?)

[Drew Adams]

    Do Re Mi sounds very nice, but I think it might want to also
    use the mouse as an alternative to the arrow keys.

Not sure what you mean. You can currently use the mouse wheel as well as the
arrow keys. Were you perhaps thinking of using mouse gestures?

    Also, in some cases it might be
    good to map two dimensions of the color space at a time, not just one.

It could be done, I suppose. But, unless you would limit that to 45 degree
diagonals (equal changes in two dimensions), which is not that useful, I
think a different approach would be called for; that is, use a different,
more sophisticated interface, such as that provided by various other apps.

The Custom tab of the Colors dialog box of Word is a good (typical?)
example. It's difficult to describe, so I've attached an image. You can use
it to:

 - Set color components absolutely, using RGB or HSV. You can change any of
these components incrementally.

 - Pick a color from a spectrum display whose saturation changes in the
orthogonal axis (that is, hue x saturation). After picking a spot in this
color plane, you can use the arrow keys to change the saturation (up, down)
or hue (left, right) incrementally. You can also drag the pointer around the
display to change the color.

 - Change only the value, using an associated scale. That is, the third,
value axis is shown separately, next to the hue x saturation plane. You can
use the arrow keys to move the slider along this scale, incrementally
changing the value.

The current color is shown, along with the new color (the one you are
changing). The new color is updated in all displays (RGB, HSV, hue x
saturation plane, value scale) as you change it.

The only disadvantage of such a dialog box wrt doremi is that you don't see
the result reflected immediately in the context of your Emacs buffers - you
see it only in the dialog-box color swatches (New, Current). But we could
choose to also show the changes simultaneously in Emacs buffers.

I'm only suggesting that doremi is rudimentary, compared to something like
the Word dialog box. To change more than one color component at the same
time, it's better to have an interface that shows a color space, such as in
the Word dialog box.

color-db.jpg
Description: JPEG image