Switches are back and the correct color (well the color they are in NeatTools anyhow). I’ve also fixed some minor display bugs, like if you type too much in an integer box, the wires looked funky.
Since I brought the switch back, I added a shadow that indicates the button and the switch are in the up position. They are both slightly darker when down. I will likely land on some final display preference for all the modules much later, but it’s nice for now.
This movie requires Flash Player 9
I really like that switches change visually when pressed; however, the particular frame you placed around these buttons makes them look out of focus to me.
Fortunately changing that will be easy. Do you have a recommendation? I’ve also been flirting with the idea of having the LEDs, for instance, actually emit light beyond the border of the module, or even spray particle effects. Flash will let you create color gradients on lines (wires) but the gradient is defined by a box, not the path of the line. I was briefly experimenting with gradating the color of connections from. say, green to red, but the effect, as I was implementing it, didn’t account for all the twists and turns. I just thought it would be nice to know at a look the flow direction. I still do, I just need to think about how to display that. Maybe even with some animation along the line itself. It would have to be subtle, and almost definitely toggle-able.
I could tell you what labview does, but that may create a complication down the road. How do you make a button look depressed? (There’s got to be a joke in there somewhere, I’m just too tired to reach for it). LEDs should go from dark (off) to a color (red, green, amber, or blue).
The line animation showing data flow is also a fine idea, good for debugging.