- Inkscape Devel - Inkscape Mailman

new statusbar API
by bulia byak 16 Dec '03

16 Dec '03

There are new functions for statusbar display. Please use them where appropriate to make statusbar helpful and informative: void sp_view_set_statusf (SPView *view, const gchar *format, ...); Sets statusbar message permanently. The format string and the rest of arguments are as in printf(). Not to be used normally, because the message never disappears unless replaced by another message. In the majority of situations, one of the _flash or _error functions should be used instead. void sp_view_clear_status (SPView *view); Clears statusbar message permanently. Not to be used normally. In the majority of situations, one of the _flash or _error functions should be used instead. void sp_view_set_statusf_flash (SPView *view, const gchar *format, ...); Displays message temporarily for 1 second; when the message disappears, the one that was in the statusbar before it is restored. Use this function for short helpful hints or explanations of non-trivial actions. Examples: "No-break space" when you press ctrl-space in text object; "Closing path" when hitting the anchor in freehand; "Selection cancelled" when pressing Esc cancelled rubberband selection. void sp_view_set_statusf_error (SPView *view, const gchar *format, ...); Displays message temporarily for 5 seconds; when the message disappears, the one that was in the statusbar before it is restored. Use this function for most non-fatal error messages (unless they are so important as to warrant a modal messagebox). Examples: "To join, you must have two endnodes selected" when you try to join nodes that are not exactly two endpoints; "To subtract, you must have two objects selected" for the boolean difference operation. The only potential difficulty with these functions is figuring out the SPView. How you do this depends on what you have at hand when you call one of these functions. Examples: SPEventContext *ec; sp_view_set_statusf_flash (SP_VIEW(ec->desktop), format, ...); SPSelection *sel; sp_view_set_statusf_flash (SP_VIEW(sel->desktop), format, ...); SPNodePath *nodepath; sp_view_set_statusf_flash (SP_VIEW(nodepath->desktop), format, ...); _________________________________________________________________ Our best dial-up offer is back. Get MSN Dial-up Internet Service for 6 months @ $9.95/month now! http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/dialup

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Re: [Inkscape-devel] New guide prototype
by Michael Wybrow 16 Dec '03

16 Dec '03

On Wed, 10 Dec 2003, Nathan Hurst wrote: > > Please run it and tell us if the behaviour feels right - it is easier > to try variations whilst the code is python, rather than C++ (although > it is easier to know whether the behaviour feels right once we > implement it in Inkscape proper) If you are labelling these guidelines as `placement aids' then I think the behaviour feels wrong in that they have too much power. Namely the power to resize objects that are attached to them, which moves beyond `placement.' This is a really minor criticism and I see the current behaviour being very useful for doing things like resizing multiple shapes togther. My suggestion would be for you guys to (in the next prototype iteration) offer at least a couple of shapes in the example window. These types of guidelines are most useful for aligning shapes, and without a couple of shapes it is hard to simulate some of the situations that will likely arise in true editing. Thus, this may enable you to get some more useful feedback. > Feel free to ask questions about our intentions, and suggest > extensions that would be helpful. Clearly the prototype is but a > taste of what can be done with this new approach (We have several > whiteboards worth of ideas to implement :), but it is important to > work out the basic interface now. > > In particular, what do people think about the two tools behaviour? I personally found the two tools to be confusing and subtle in their differences. I do understand the differences between them and suspect that the problem my lie in the way they're described (the icons, tooltips and cursors used). The second tool mode is really "Manipulate control points while keeping attached control points constrained (where possible)." > Should this be folded into a modifier key on the selection tool? Yes, but there needs to be a good visual indicator when this modifier is active, i.e. moving over the control points results in two different cursors, depending on the modifier state. Preferably the user should be able to tell what will happen when they drag the control point before they actually begin moving it. > Is the breaking of constraint behaviour (which control point > disconnects when you move something) reasonable, or can you suggest a > better heuristic? (Currently the rule that is broken is chosen > arbitrarily, perhaps it would be better to break the oldest created > relationship, or perhaps the least recently moved?) This is where you start to get into problems. Breaking things arbitrarily is very bad and will frustrate users, *unless* they can clearly determine the heuristic and predict its results. Additionally, any behaviour that is inconsistent from use to use is terrible from a usability perspective. It may be better to break the oldest created relationship, but if this is not immediately obvious to the user (as the cause of the breakage) then this is just as bad as the current situation. `Least recently moved' suffers a similar problem in that different constraints get broken depending on the order of previous actions. This is also bad because the user is probably likely to think in terms of tasks they are completing and may use two different orders of steps to complete the task without realising themselves, each time leading to a different constraint breakage. Also, what if the diagram has just been opened, how is the decision made then? Perhaps you should be thinking about not breaking the guideline constraint, i.e. have the control point do nothing by instead breaking the mouse constraint. I notice this is what happens if the center and left-middle points are each attached to a seperate vertical guideline and you try and drag the right-top control point. Though there ought to be some feedback to the user here explaining why the control point doesn't have any effect (in one direction) when dragged. I'm not sure there is a `perfect' solution to this question. But I'll have a bit more of a think about desirable behaviours. > What do people think of the indicators for how control points are > connected to guide lines and guide points? Suggestions? This works for me on one level--I like the way they look when connected. I don't like the way they lose the look of control points. After manipulating them further it is clear they are still control points, though when it first occurs you feel like you've lost the `handle.' My feel is it is a little unnatural to click on and manipulate the `railway tracks' when wanting to break a control point from a guideline. I also don't quite understand how this is going to work in Inkscape itself either. As Bulia pointed out, the control points in Inkscape are away from the edges of shapes. Also, I notice when a selection contains multiple shapes then these control points represent the edges of the bounding box of the selection. It doesn't make sense for these control points to be attached to guidelines. It needs to somehow be shown that the control point of the shape sharing that edge of the bounding box has become attached. Given this behaviour, you may need to have a seperate second tool to deal with objects themselves rather than the bounding box of the selection. In any case, I suggest there also needs to be some discussion about how exactly these tools will fit into general Inkscape editing. I know that you were looking mainly for critism of the model rather than implementation details, but such things may need to be considered by your model. Cheers, Michael

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RE: [Inkscape-devel] some questions/suggestions
by bulia byak 16 Dec '03

16 Dec '03

>duplicate should keep the copy in the same location, and paste should >follow the mouse, but possibly should be in the same place if the mouse >hasn't moved yet... I think the last part (watching if the mouse has moved) is too difficult to implement, enough to have a separate "paste to original location" command >It would be nice to get a visual identification on the cloning of an >object though, with the mouse pointer changing and/or the statusbar >changing when a hotkey is depressed to do cookiecutter duplication of an >object. Cloning (as I see it) requres quite a lot of UI changes. I did not think about them in detail yet. >I know there is the weird spacebar super-clone that is somewhat >similar. That is already implemented, but not in documentation very >prominently. It's not cloning, just copying, the copies have no connection to the original (what I had in mind was something different) >A couple of other things: It would be good to fix the menu item "Stoke >to Path" to say "Stroke to Path" (TYPO). Thanks, fixed >I think a good feature would be >to add more hotkeys while editing and dragging objects. A good feature >of illustration programs is to hold the alt key and get to drag a new >copy and leave the old one behind. Space does that to some extent, although admittedly less convenient >And better still, is if you hold the >shift key down and you can constrain the new copy to 90 deg. angles (or >whatever is the pref). Not only for copy - dragging anyting with ctrl should restrict to hor/vert, this is in todo already _________________________________________________________________ Cell phone �switch� rules are taking effect � find out more here. http://special.msn.com/msnbc/consumeradvocate.armx

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gimp2svg
by Bryce Harrington 16 Dec '03

16 Dec '03

A program referred to on the Sodipodi tools site, 'gimp2sodi', provides some scripts to convert raster images into vector, etc. I've added this to the Inkscape experimental module, in hopes one day it can be incorporated as a module to allow importing Gimp files into Inkscape. Bryce

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RE: text inset
by bulia byak 16 Dec '03

16 Dec '03

>ok, fixed. a few notes: >- the text was insetting correctly on my computer, >because it was using another font; the reason the >shape disappeared turned out to be the orientation of >glyphs path in conjunction with winding fill rule. Thanks! >- the result is filled with black because that's the >value it gets when asking for the stroke attribute in >the style (see xml tree), so it may be the color >handling bug you refered to in a previous bug report Yes, I think so. Jon, it's http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=859568&group_id=93… which you said is yours. Do you have any progress with it? It's really getting in our way :) Now there are two more problems. Take the bug-textinset again and: - set its outline to 1 pt, press ctrl-) three times. It grows OK, but on fourth and subsequent outsets, nothing happens - it stops to grow. - now remove the stroke - you'll notice areas where the shape bacame really weird, e.g. under the top left serif of "w". - now reload the file and repeat, this time with a 0.5 pt stroke. Now it stops after 4 applications of outset, and there are less broken areas (but the "r" is still somewhat broken). So: why does it stop growing, and can you do anything about the broken contours? (sorry about the nitpicking, but it's a very very useful feature, and I want it to work as perfectly as possible) _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.ms…

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Re: [Inkscape-devel] handling statusbar messages
by bulia byak 15 Dec '03

15 Dec '03

>If the actual check is done in SPText (I forget if it is), then it needs >to have some way of signaling that failure to its caller (an >SPTextContext method, in this case). OK, here's another one for you: knot.c, sp_knot_handler(), available are SPCanvasItem, GdkEvent, SPKnot. I want to explain in the statusbar when Esc cancels node drag. How do I get an SPView? (Sorry to keep bothering you, but I'm not too familiar with the hierarchy of objects.) _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: smart spam protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.ms…

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some questions/suggestions
by Alexander Kirillov 15 Dec '03

15 Dec '03

Hi, just checked out version 0.36 - great job! Still, there are 2 issues that have always bugged me in sodipodi and still bug me in inkscape. If some one can suggest a workaround, I'd be glad to hear it. If not, maybe i should file this as wishlist items in bug tracker... 1. Is there an easy way of creating a closed Bezier curve? Of course, one can create an open one and then connect endpoints, but it is a long process... 2. When copying an object, the copied object is put at exactly the same position as the original. Am I the only one who finds it inconvenient? I frequently need to have several copies of the same object in different places my drawings, and selecting one of the two objects which are literally on top of each other is awkward, especially if the objects are small. I'd much prefer that "paste" creates a floating object, which follows mouse cursor, and you click to show where to put it. What do the usability experts say about such an idea? Best, Sasha PS. Please cc me when replying: I am not subscribed to the list.

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The GPL'd database for Loads of Linux Links now includes http://www.inkscape.org/ (fwd)
by Bryce Harrington 15 Dec '03

15 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 14 Dec 2003 12:33:16 -0800 (PST) From: Barbara E. Irwin <beirwin@...106...> To: bryce@...58..., buliabyak@...58..., mental@...107..., njh@...58... Subject: The GPL'd database for Loads of Linux Links now includes http://www.inkscape.org/ I've recently included the Inkscape website on the Loads of Linux Links project website, which can be found here: http://loll.sourceforge.net/linux/links/index.html Complete details of this project can be found here: http://loll.sourceforge.net/announce-1.1.0.html I have classified the website under: Graphics. Thanks for the link! Barbara ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Barbara Irwin beirwin@...106... Victoria, B.C. Canada The Roman Rule: The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it.

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absolute path
by bulia byak 15 Dec '03

15 Dec '03

Regarding this bug: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=860202&group_id=93… does anyone else think that document.cpp must store the absolute path already, i.e. instead of document->uri = g_strdup (uri); in sp_document_create we should have something like document->uri = abs_path (uri, base); That would fix the above bug. If so what standard function is there for creating an absolute path? I could not find one in glib. _________________________________________________________________ Shop online for kids� toys by age group, price range, and toy category at MSN Shopping. No waiting for a clerk to help you! http://shopping.msn.com

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RE: [Inkscape-devel] some questions/suggestions
by bulia byak 15 Dec '03

15 Dec '03

>1. Is there an easy way of creating a closed Bezier curve? Of course, >one can create an open one and then connect endpoints, but it is a long >process... In freehand and bezier tools, just press 'a'. It will then display anchors at both ends of the curve being created, and by drawing to these anchors you will close the curve. And closing a curve in node editor is in fact not difficult at all. >2. When copying an object, the copied object is put at exactly the same >position as the original. Am I the only one who finds it inconvenient? I >frequently need to have several copies of the same object in different >places my drawings, and selecting one of the two objects which are >literally on top of each other is awkward, especially if the objects are >small. I'd much prefer that "paste" creates a floating object, which >follows mouse cursor, and you click to show where to put it. What do the >usability experts say about such an idea? Actually you CAN move a pasted or duplicated object with arrow keys, because it's selected. Press ctrl-d and then arrows, it's very convenient imho. But I plan to change the paste command so it by default pastes in the center of the visible canvas, and a variant of this command (e.g. with shift or alt) pastes to where the object was copied from. _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 with e-mail virus protection service: 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoi…

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