Toolbar selection inconvenience

[Tolinar]

I created a forum identity specifically to complain about a tiny problem with the interface which frustrates the crap out of me.

If you click a button on the toolbox (to change tools), then move the mouse off the toolbox button without releasing the button, the tool doesn't change.

So, I'll click, for example, the eyedropper button quickly, but move the cursor off the toolbox before releasing

Then click the picture and put down a dot of color - because the tool didn't change.

Essentially - the interface ignores attempts to change tools if you don't both click-and-release over the control button.

This nuisance is easily reproduced and with the small size of the toolbox controls, probably introduces a lot of bother to people's operation.
I can understand canceling the selection when you hold the mouse button down to bring up the context menu...

but even if you click on a control and then smear over other controls before releasing the mouse, the control and intent is definitely on the Mouse button down operation.
This nuisance seems easy to fix. Please deal with it soon in a future version.

[Ofnuts]

Sorry to disappoint you, but the rule (and it's not Gimp, it's all over the place, since early Windows....) is that what really count is the button release. Try this in most apps (even here on Gimp-forum: in your browser, try the Reply button below), click a button, and while keeping the mouse button pressed move the pointer out of the button, then release. You'll see that the button press is ignored. And it's not just buttons, it also applies to checkboxes, radio buttons, etc... (there are exceptions, such as with repeat-on-hold widgets like spinners...)

Otherwise, Gimp lets you use bigger buttons, and if you are in a hurry, there are keyboard shortcuts

[Tolinar]

(08-21-2025, 12:52 AM)Ofnuts Wrote: Sorry to disappoint you, but the rule (and it's not Gimp, it's all over the place, since early Windows....) is that what really count is the button release. Try this in most apps (even here on Gimp-forum: in your browser, try the Reply button below), click a button, and while keeping the mouse button pressed move the pointer out of the button, then release. You'll see that the button press is ignored. And it's not just buttons, it also applies to checkboxes, radio buttons, etc... (there are exceptions, such as with repeat-on-hold widgets like spinners...)

Otherwise, Gimp lets you use bigger buttons, and if you are in a hurry, there are keyboard shortcuts

It may be standard, but that doesn't mean it's a convenient design... I suppose I might try to enlarge the toolbox buttons if there are no other options.
Also, the fact that the effect is so pronounced only in this app suggests that may there's some feedback lag on the buttons which is encouraging the problem. Perhaps the mouseup is being read a handful of milliseconds late, resulting in what would normally be a precise input being interpreted as a miss.

[Ofnuts]

I have been trying to reproduce your problem. My toolbox icons are 40px apart, which is is the smallest Gimp allows (I'm using "medium" icons but "small" icons don't make the buttons smaller°) after hundreds of clicks zipping across the toolbox I can't reproduce your problem. Maybe my finger is faster than my wrist, or maybe my mouse is fast (I do reckon that you could have the problem with the slow mice of yore).

I don't think this a problem with Gimp itself. But Gimp is a demanding application and tends to exacerbate PC problems that are therefore first noticed with Gimp. I have several times remotely diagnosed mouse battery problems or keyboard troubles in this forum.

[Tolinar]

Well, if the problem is not reproducible, then it might as well be a malfunction on my part.
Thank you for your time.