Regression: platform drawing

[m.vanderwulp]

I saved my Simutrans pak128 world in V123, and opened it in the new version 124.1.
There are many small changes, which I appreciate, but there are also regressions:

I often create a multi-track station by laying down the rails first, and then selecting the "simple platform" tool. The two screenshots show a typical "before" and "after" situation.

In V123, I could hold the left mousebutton down, and drag (while holding the mousebutton down) with the tool over the rails, to create a platform. Very easy to do and quick.

In V124.1, I have to click with the left mouse button in every tile to lay my platform. Four platforms of 12 tiles long equals 48 clicks - not a nice job...

[Yona-TYT]

In V123, I could hold the left mousebutton down, and drag (while holding the mousebutton down) with the tool over the rails, to create a platform. Very easy to do and quick.

This was intentionally removed so there wouldn't be as many issues moving around on touch screens when the station building tool is active.

[Flemmbrav]

I wish there'd be something to replace that old feature in usefulness.
Maybe adding a ctrl+click to build a span from click one to click two or something like that?

[Yona-TYT]

I wish there'd be something to replace that old feature in usefulness.
Maybe adding a ctrl+click to build a span from click one to click two or something like that?

In my opinion this function is very useful, perhaps it can be reimplemented using a key combination.

Edit.
But Prissi did mention that this is too difficult since the keys are being used elsewhere (or something like that, I don't remember well).

[Roboron]

I think it would make sense to use Shift for that. As the Shift key is usually used in combination with the mouse to select a number of elements from a clicked element to the X element, it could similarly be used in Simutrans to apply a tool from point A to point Z and everything in between.

First Click while pressing Shift to start selection from point A.

Second Click while pressing Shift to apply to every tile from point A to point Z (if possible).

Ctrl key is already used as modifier on some tools (straigth ways building for example).

[Flemmbrav]

Ctrl key is already used as modifier on some tools (straigth ways building for example).

which is exactly why I thought that the ctrl key might fit here.

[prissi]

The problem is that dragging is fundamentally different from clicking. A modifier key would prevent ANY dragging and would apply to any tool as the dragging events are handled totally different, way more down the event chain. So it would apply to any tool, as before. Since waybuilding uses dragging and CNTRL, it needs to be another key. Maybe shift.
I forgot we had already a mechanism for this. Reenabled dragging in r11279. Let's see how cumbersome it is for the ANdroid user to not be able to scroll before building a station.

[Yona-TYT]

The problem is that dragging is fundamentally different from clicking. A modifier key would prevent ANY dragging and would apply to any tool as the dragging events are handled totally different, way more down the event chain. So it would apply to any tool, as before. Since waybuilding uses dragging and CNTRL, it needs to be another key. Maybe shift.
I forgot we had already a mechanism for this. Reenabled dragging in r11279. Let's see how cumbersome it is for the ANdroid user to not be able to scroll before building a station.

Why not make it a configuration parameter and keep it disabled in Android? Or better yet, if there is some way to differentiate between mouse events and touch events, then in theory you can avoid drag building in touch mode.

[prissi]

There are devices with a mouse and touch (as would happen if connection a mouse to a tablet or a PC with a touch screen like my laptop).
One could make this configurable. But then, Android has the same problem with building tracks.