(In reply to Gale Andrews from comment #0)
> * Arguably the most useful action should be default
Arguably for users that make a lot of use of split lines, we already do that.

> Click to merge is ALT-click or right-click.
I would hope that right click on a wave track will eventually open a context menu. The Alt key is already used for accessing the main menu. Ctrl+Click is currently used to activate scrub mode.

> * Alternatively make the left-click to merge location-dependent
I quite like that, but it becomes rather fiddly when tracks are minimised. Thinking ahead, we may prefer to use vertical location in other ways, for example for making non-destructive fades (commonly used in other audio and video editors).

> * Add keyboard ability to navigate to previous / next clip boundary. TAB to
> move to next boundary and SHIFT + TAB to move to previous boundary.
I like the idea of keyboard navigation to previous/next split, but not the TAB key. The TAB key cannot be defined in Keyboard Preferences, and TAB is already used (Linux) to move to the next control. 

If this can be done, then the same keyboard combination could be used in label tracks to navigate/select from one label to the next (without entering the label text).

The problem is that we already allocate so many keyboard shortcuts that there are few sensible combinations available. Shift+Cursor is used for extending a selection, Ctrl+cursor is used contracting a selection, Alt is used to access the menu, Numpad is not available on all computers, Pg Up/Down are used. Is there a good, unused keyboard combination remaining for this purpose?

Perhaps some way to toggle "click to merge" could be a solution?

Personally, the easy solution that I discovered after my first few minutes using Audacity;
Rather than "click on the merge line and drag to somewhere else", "click somewhere else and drag to the merge line".

(In reply to Steve Daulton from comment #1)
>> * Arguably the most useful action should be default
> Arguably for users that make a lot of use of split lines, we already do that.

Split lines are documented as a way of adding "markers in the waveform" (a common request). The use case for markers in the waveform is to click to select them.  

> > Click to merge is ALT-click or right-click.
> I would hope that right click on a wave track will eventually open a context 
> menu. The Alt key is already used for accessing the main menu.
One of the right-click menu items (when over a split line) could be "Merge".

We would have to add a right-click menu item "Remove" when over a cut line, otherwise the current right-click to delete a cut line will be lost.  
 
If you hold ALT and click, the click stops the menu being accessed.   
 
> > * Add keyboard ability to navigate to previous / next clip boundary. TAB to
> > move to next boundary and SHIFT + TAB to move to previous boundary.
> I like the idea of keyboard navigation to previous/next split, but not the 
> TAB key. The TAB key cannot be defined in Keyboard Preferences, and TAB is 
> already used (Linux) to move to the next control. 

I don't object to using other than TAB, but I am unclear why you object to TAB. TAB should not on Linux be navigating out of tracks into other tooldock areas (regression bug 1247).  

The idea of using TAB (as we do to navigate labels) is to avoid using scarce shortcuts.

However if we do use a shortcut to navigate to a split boundary, and do allow TAB in audio tracks, perhaps the new shortcut that would navigate to a label boundary without opening the label would navigate to the split boundary in the track. TAB in the audio track could select the clip whose boundary it navigated to.

Promoted to P2. Not really an enhancement. It was not taken into account that it was as important to some users to use split lines as selection edges as to merge the clips.

(In reply to Gale Andrews from comment #3)
P2 seems highly excessive.

DEVEL - FIX MADE
https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/dc1193a0af83f1d43de5a30aea6b6b09087eea58

It seems to me that the underlying proble here is not that it is hard to selcet up to clip line boundaries but rather that left click on the clip line deletes it.

Instead we could stop left click deleteing the clip line and instead use right-click to delete it - or use right-click to pop  a dropdown menu with "Delete Clip line" as an entry (cf. righ-click dropdown in a label for label delete.


Then we would not need that new two-part compound clip line which a looks inelegant and is likely to confuse a lot of users.

(In reply to Peter Sampson from comment #6)
And I note that this is roughly what Gale suggested three years ago in his Comment #0 riginal post:

> Arguably the most useful action should be default. 
>Make click at split line snap to and select there. 
>Click to merge is ALT-click or right-click.

(In reply to Peter Sampson from comment #7)
As someone that does use audio clips and split lines regularly, I can say that the simplicity and efficiency of "click to join" is a terrifically good feature that is and should be easily discoverable.

In over 10 years on the forum I have not encountered anyone other than Gale that finds the old behaviour to be a significant problem, just a couple of users that think that being able to select 'from' a split line would be a nice additional feature. Thus reverting the priority to the original P4 rating to reflect the views of users and the majority of the QA team.

I'm not keen on requiring a modifier key for joining clips as that makes this (very useful) feature much less discoverable. 10+ years in the wild has shown that users very rarely if ever have a major problem with not being able to click and drag "from" a split point (dragging "to" a split point is obviously not an issue, and double click on a clip is a better way to select the entire audio clip).

My preferred solution, if we are to have tool-tips over the waveform (as we currently have in 2.2.0 alpha), is along the lines of:


1) When pointer over a split line, the cursor becomes a "glue" cursor.

​2) A tool-tip displays:
"Click to join. Shift+Click and drag to select"

3) If the shift button is pressed, the cursor returns to a normal "I-beam" selection cursor.

However, I believe that this is an enhancement that should be discussed on the QA mailing list, and NOT something that we rush to implement close to release.

The "fix" provided by https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/dc1193a does resolve the issue as stated, so imo this bug 880 can be closed, and any residual issues logged as (low priority) new bugzilla items.

Much debate about this today, elsewhere in email.  We seem agreed that this fix for this bug in this release is not a necessity.

I have reverted the changed appearance of split lines at https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/c5fc8eef03300e1d3b106f6c8a111602a1b01ad5

Please try it again at https://github.com/audacity/audacity/commit/5644bed8bd6c4d11d12b1b8633f30009ab14555e

No more tooltips, and no more Tab key.  But now the Esc key does it instead, and there is a clue to the use of Esc in the status bar message.

Though this bug was demoted from P2 to P4, I think this issue did need the extra debate, being, as I said, only a special case of a wider problem that I think is now addressed in a more general way, but without the objectionable features of my first atttempt at it.

RESOLVED - FIXED

The UI to do it (press ESC to cancel join of clips) is a bit weird, but there is a tip about Esc, and pressing Esc is not 'too hard'.  You then get proper snapping rather than a 'virtual cursor' and the visuals for snapping are familiar, so provided users 'discover; the Esc, it's a solution.