consider modes about the-graph

[forresto]

Scribble delete is colliding with panning, which is disconcerting... why isn't it panning? why did half of the graph just disappear?

I think that these gestural differences are hurting usability.

[bergie]

We need to tune the speed requirement of the scrub-to-delete gesture to make it collide less with regular graph panning.

As for modes, they would also open door to other gestures, like draw square to add node, GraIL-style, with something like: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19622912/pointer-event-listener-shape-gestures-how-graphic-example-included

However, see also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modeless#Mode_errors for an argument on why to avoid modes in UIs.

[forresto]

I don't think that any speed is going to make sense to delete instead of pan. Same with swipe to remove / move. Deleting can happen from the node / edge inspector.

Re: mode errors, these gestural differences that we have so far are like hidden modes. I think that we need some kind of metric to decide if something like the node move/connect directions is worth the learning curve.

Maybe modes like [gesture | select | move | connect], where "gesture" keeps the current behavior, would be a reasonable balance. Then power users can use gestures or keyboard shortcuts, and less-power users can switch modes by clicking the tool.

[bergie]

Instead of modes we could also utilize multitouch. One finger for gestures (node and edge manipulation), two fingers for navigating the canvas. So you'd pan with two fingers, a bit like two-finger scroll works on trackpads, and zoom with a pinch