Hi Friends,
This topic may end up being moved to the Ideas forum, but for now, I'm just curious if others have noticed this and find it a problem. Also I'm not sure what the right terminology is, so I'll explain it.

When I click to select an object , and while holding down the Alt key, click again to select something else which is below the object in Z order, I find I have to allow a slight delay between clicks. If I don't allow a pause, the node tool becomes enabled, and the nodes of the top object are shown. Typically I have to wait for the selection box of each object to show up, before making the next click.

I find this particularly annoying when I have several objects in the Z order(or in several layers), and need to select an object a few steps below the top object. If I wait for the selection box to show up after each click, before making the next click, everything is fine. But if I'm in a hurry, I might not want to wait for the selection boxes to display. Often I find I want to just click, click, click quickly, to get down to the object I need. But that causes the node tool to be enabled, and the top object's nodes to be displayed.

(I'm not sure if memory has anything to do with this, but I have 1.24 gig RAM.)

Is it just me, or does anyone else find this annoying? Is there any way to adjust the time allowed between clicks for the selection tool to be exchanged for the node tool...or even to disable the double click from enabling the node tool?

Thanks for any comments

I haven't examined this myself, but it's too be expected since two clicks in quick succession is a double-click, which is the shortcut for the node tool as you've found.

There's only one way to get around this and that's to go into your operating sytems mouse settings and change the double-click speed to faster.

It should be the operating system that decides when to send a click, click or a double-click to Inkscape, so I don't expect there's anything you can do in Inkscape to improve the behaviour for you.

Interesting....
But I'm not talking about clicking as fast as a double-click. And the delay that's necessary to avoid getting the node tool is much longer than a double-click. Hhhhmm, I guess it's hard to explain time in words, lol. I'm just thinking of professionals using Inkscape. They certainly work at a much faster pace than I do! It's hard for me to imagine someone who makes graphics as a profession, having the patience to deal with this.

Well I wonder if having the Alt key down could be like a signal to ignore the "double-click"? Do you think that might be possible?

brynn wrote:But I'm not talking about clicking as fast as a double-click. And the delay that's necessary to avoid getting the node tool is much longer than a double-click.

I just tested and it does relate directly back to your mouse settings in Windows. If you increase the double-click speed it's a lot hard to get into node-edit mode. Perhaps it's different under Linux

It might be that the Inkscape developers could catch the double-click whilst ALT is held and do something else with it. Although I personally don't think an application should override a users wishes to send a double-click. It might make your life easier but become a problem for someone else.

Having said that, I've noticed that double-clicking whilst holding ALT behaves differently depending on if you are working with Objects (shapes) or Paths. Here's what I tested:

1. A stack of three overlapping objects
   
   1. With no objects selected, hold Alt and double click the top object
      
      • The top object switches to edit
   2. With the top object already selected, hold Alt and double-click the top object
      
      • The middle object switches to edit
2. A stack of three overlapping paths
   
   1. With no paths selected, hold Alt and double click the top path
      
      • The middle path switches to edit
   2. With the top object already selected, hold Alt and double-click the top object
      
      • The bottom object switches to edit

I would suggest this is a bug.

In most cases when this happens, I've been working with paths. And oh my goodness, you're right! I had NOT noticed that the paths were not the top paths. I've been working with paths which are basically identical, duplicates of the original, for the purpose of creating shading and highlights. And I just never looked at the layer. I was assuming it was the top path. But it's not!

I just tested and it does relate directly back to your mouse settings in Windows. If you increase the double-click speed it's a lot hard to get into node-edit mode.

Ok, I guess that's going to be my best option, then.

Thanks for looking into this for me, microUgly You not only helped me with my problem, but perhaps have uncovered something more significant. Well done!