Change StringName & inspector hint to be harder to confuse with actual text

[stephane-archer]

Godot version

v4.1.2.stable.official [399c9dc]

System information

MacOS 13.4.1 (c) (22F770820d)

Issue description

while I was doing the official 2D tutorial I wasn't able to set a shortcut
here is the doc:
https://docs.godotengine.org/en/stable/getting_started/first_2d_game/07.finishing-up.html#keyboard-shortcut
Here is what I see, I can't interact or edit the & sign:

Steps to reproduce

make the official tutorial

Minimal reproduction project

bugreport.zip

[mrcdk]

Is the text input next to the & disabled? You should be able to type the Input action name in it.

[AThousandShips]

The & sign is not the input, it's a marker that it's a StringName the edit area is the lighter gray to the right

The documentation screenshot should be updated

[Calinou]

We should change the StringName inspector to make the & more faint, or use a symbolic & icon as opposed to a literal & character (it will look more stylized and will be harder to confuse with text).

Alternatively, we can get rid of this hint entirely as it's not really relevant from an user perspective (when you don't manage the script, that is).

[dalexeev]

I find it important to distinguish between similar data types (int vs float, String vs StringName, arrays, null vs Object#null vs FreedInstance, etc.), both in print() output and in the editor.

See also:

• Always print floats as float literals (ex: trailing decimal) godot-proposals#7894
• Clearing one of the values of TypedArray in the inspector makes the value unable to be found by the find function #82716
• In 3.x, Pool*Arrays are passed by value, Arrays are passed by reference, and all are output the same. Because of this, matrix[i].remove(j) does not work if the inner arrays are Pool*Array rather than Array.

We should change the StringName inspector to make the & more faint, or use a symbolic & icon as opposed to a literal & character (it will look more stylized and will be harder to confuse with text).

We could use the type icon:

Previously, type icons were displayed in the inspector for all properties, see #11505:

[zf-moth]

I find it important to distinguish between similar data types

While it's important to distinguish between data types, I believe that a tool tip is a sufficient means to achieve this goal, eliminating unnecessary interface clutter and visual embellishments. Users can easily hover their mouse over an input box if they are unsure of the data type, providing a cleaner and efficient approach.

Another point is that these icons may pose readability challenges for beginners, whom these indicators aim to assist.

[AThousandShips]

This was done in:

• Add indicator for StringName properties #77521

And because of multiple reasons and shouldn't be reverted

[zf-moth]

The need to introduce a tool tip for a label that is intended to signify its purpose as a StringName label further affirms my point for removal of such label and instead moving the tooltip to input box.

[AThousandShips]

The tooltip isnt accessible, tooltips aren't available on all input modes and platforms, and without it you can't tell the difference

[Calinou]

If you don't want to use the StringName type icon (which may look a bit cryptic and out of place), change the hint to use a bold font but decrease its opacity to compensate.

[dalexeev]

While it's important to distinguish between data types, I believe that a tool tip is a sufficient means to achieve this goal, eliminating unnecessary interface clutter and visual embellishments. Users can easily hover their mouse over an input box if they are unsure of the data type

I'm not sure if we should add type icons for each property like in 2.x (?), it can really look noisy. But I think it's important to distinguish similar types without hovering over a property. For int vs float this can be achieved using trailing decimal, for arrays this is done in the inspector (but not in print() output):

For String vs StringName vs NodePath vs Node it might look like this:

[AshutoshAkkole]

I want to work on this issue,
So we can go with bold "&" with decreased opacity, or maybe icon?

[AThousandShips]

That is the suggestion yes!

[zhelding]

Started working on a pull request for this (#84949).

So far, I have identified the relevant bit of code for modifying the appearance of the label and am able to set it to an arbitrary color.

However, I have so far been unsuccessful in retrieving the theme-appropriate color to apply to the label. I've tried using get_theme_color(SNAME("disabled_font_color"), EditorStringName(Editor)) - but for some reason that seems to just return the color black.

Any advice would be appreciated!

[KoBeWi]

You are probably calling this method too early. Try doing it inside NOTIFICATION_POSTINITIALIZE or NOTIFICATION_THEME_CHANGED.

[zhelding]

Thanks so much for the tip; I believe #84949 now resolves this!