On Fri, 14 Apr 2006, bulia byak wrote:
Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2006 01:29:17 -0300 From: bulia byak <buliabyak@...400...> To: Alan Horkan <horkana@...44...> Cc: Inkscape-Devel inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] NEW: Xara keyboard shortcuts
On 4/13/06, Alan Horkan <horkana@...44...> wrote:
Also I would like to humbly suggest a set like sodipodi.xml or classic.xml which would for future reference freeze the keybindings Inkscape has now and has long had and many users seem to be quite happy with.
What Inkscape has _now_ is very very far from Sodipodi :) And it's always being developed and expanded, changing with every version.
I was assuming you mostly expanded rather than outright changed the keybindings but in case you did change things I suggested the alternative of a "classic" set of keybindings.
Those who want keys corresponding to Inkscape 0.XX can just download that version of inkscape.xml from SVN or sourceforge archive.
That isn't particularly convenient. Users will certainly balk at this prospect, even experienced users and complain loudly if their favourite keybindings are changed.
The Gnome HIG advises against trying to have keybindings for absolutely everything. I understand now why, because Inkscape has keybindings for just about everything it is very hard to add any new keybindings. On top of that the most appropriate keybinding for a task is often taken for something else and as we saw before attempts to change one keybinding quickly cascades into a massive task requiring many changes. (The desire to have keybindings for everything also means there will be a tendancy to want to use individual menu items for everything instead of consolidating things into dialogs and trying bigger ways to streamline the workflow, not that I have any great examples right now.)
By providing a snapshot of the keybindings as they are now it would reduce the massive pressure against changing any of the existing keybindings. It would give developers more leeway to choose the most appropriate keybindings without being totally constrained by what was used in the past.
I strongly believe the default keybindings should try to be easier for beginners to learn. Also there are many users who are familiar with Adobe and Macromedia products (between them they dominate most of the commercial market for Vector graphics drawing) and they share a subset of common keybindings. Trying to match those common keybindings (identify that list of shared keybindings will be a bit of hassle) but it would make Inkscape appeal to the widest possible audience.
This assumes Inkscape wants to atttract more users.
Thanks for all the work, now I'd better get started on a keyset in the style of Macromedia Freehand or Adobe Illustrator (I had a list lying around somewhere, the tricky part will be matching corresponding features).
I'll try and dig out those lists...
Anyone with a copy of Macromedia can easily export the list of keybindings as HTML or text if they look in the preferences dialog.
Jasc Web Draw keybindings http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~horkana/inkscape/WebDraw_Keyboard_Shortcuts.html
Macromedia Freehand keybindings http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~horkana/inkscape/freehand/FreeHandMX_keybindings.tx...
Adobe Illustrator Keybindings http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~horkana/inkscape/illustrator/Illustrator%20CS%20Def...
I had a side by side list for Adobe and Macromedia in nicely formatted HTML around somewhere, I'll see if I can dig it up later.
That would be much appreciated. I remembered about that list of yours but could not find it now. You can start the AI and/or FH profiles and do what you can do, then submit them so I and others will complete and polish them.
Could be a few days before I get stuck in and get started (and I'll try to hang around on IRC while I'm doing it). If anyone does start on either of those before then please mail the list, and create a report in the tracker to help avoid any duplication of effort.
Sincerely
Alan Horkan http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/