Only move a point if already selected

[1ec5]

Description

Mappers frequently complain that iD users accidentally, sometimes unknowingly move points by dragging them around when they actually intended to pan the map. We only have this problem with standalone nodes, not vertices of lines or areas, because you can only move a vertex if it or the parent way is already selected.

What if we mitigate the problem of accidental point dragging by only moving the point if it’s already selected? Otherwise, initiating a drag would merely select the point, but the user would need to release and drag again in order to move the point. Selecting the point would result in visual change, so that the user would understand that their drag hasn’t been totally ignored (which would be disorienting).

As a concession to users who need to move lots of things around without having to click twice as often, we could also move the point if the user presses and holds the point for like a second before dragging. This would be consistent with the standard dragging gesture on multitouch mobile devices. In case they happen to press and hold by accident while distracted, pressing the Escape key could cancel the move operation (#4817).

This approach would do nothing for a user mapping in a dense minefield of points who still wants to pan around using a mouse button, but at least they can attempt to pan with the confidence that they won’t inadvertently damage the map.

Screenshots

No response

[jjiglesiasg]

However I do agree with such solution. Let me pinpoint that ID users are ALSO MAPPERS, that is not just reserved for JOSM users.

[qwright10]

I tested a few changes and came up with the following:

1. Drag only when selected / when parent is selected

2. Cancel drag with escape

As far as long press to drag, the current behavior seems to be very platform-dependent. Across mobile and desktop Chrome and Firefox, long presses either

• opens the node context menu and selects the node, making it draggable (Chrome and mobile Firefox)
• opens the browser context menu and does not select the point (mobile Chrome, sometimes)
• does nothing (desktop Firefox).

More considerations

• Maybe we could change the node context menu on mobile to double tap and change long press to select?
• Make this select-to-drag behavior opt-in
• Clicking once to select seems much faster than a long click/press