Hide "removed" datablocks from the GUI
Currently the only way of removing datablocks (mostly thinking about images here) is Shift-clicking their X button.
This doesn't really remove them until the file is reloaded - the user doesn't have to know that though. His intention was to remove the item, and yet the item is still there with a 0 next to it. How Blender does datablock removal internally is mostly[1] irrelevant to a user.
Maybe he wants to clean up the item list? Maybe lower down the number of items on the list to a certain amount? Or just wants the feeling that the program did acknowledge that he wanted to remove an item? Current way does not help with that, hiding the item would.
Are there any drawbacks in hiding "removed" datablocks that I don't see? Aside from the possibility to bring the item back - deleting objects in the 3D View doesn't give that possibility and it's fine.
[1] Mostly since the filesize doesn't go down instantly but only after saving, restarting, opening, and saving again I think.
5 Comments
Another place that does this is text blocks, if you unlink a text block it's instantly gone and you can't get it back. I think it makes sense from a consistency standpoint to do the same thing with images as well. Maybe there should be an unlink option for images?
Deleting objects in the 3D View does give that possibility (to a degree). The object may be removed with no means of retrieval, but the mesh datablock persists and can be reassigned to any object of the same type.
Although I prefer the current behavior (removed datablocks can be quickly nuked with a quick save and reload - <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>S</kbd>, <kbd>Ctrl</kbd>+<kbd>Shift</kbd>+<kbd>O</kbd>), I don't have a huge problem with this proposal, so long as it's only for those instances when a user <kbd>Shift</kbd>+clicks the X and not for regular X clicks.
I agree with Fweeb on this. Only shift+click should do it. Otherwise every time you change a data/material/texture and the one you left has no more users, it wouldn't be selectable anymore.
btw how did you do the black buttons ? I can't find the BBcode tags for it.
This site uses Markdown. It also allows some simple HTML formatting. So if you type
<kbd>Shift</kbd>, you'll get <kbd>Shift</kbd>.