On Tue, Apr 26, 2005 at 06:36:07PM -0300, bulia byak wrote:
Some time ago I switched the "add mode" on by default when you go to Pen or Pencil tools. This makes it easier to continue the selected path, but if you just want to draw a new path, this may be annoying because it insists on creating a subpath of selected path. So now I changed that behavior so that:
o When you start drawing outside of the end markers of theselected path, that path is deselected and you are drawing a new path (not a new subpath of the selected path as before).
Thank you. CVS behaviour of defaulting to add mode was very annoying until this.
o When you start drawing from one end marker of a path andarrive at the other end marker, the path gets closed automatically (the markers disappear).
This seems to be true of 0.41 as well, both add and non-add modes.
Note that this means you can't create unconnected subpaths simply by drawing anymore; you'll have to draw paths separately and then Combine them. I think this is OK, but if this is a problem for someone, please let me know.
Another regression/change relative to 0.41 is that now one can only append to a subpath by _starting_ within a marker, not by starting outside of markers and finishing within a marker.
In this case, `Combine' isn't enough: `Combine' would combine the two paths into a single path (of multiple subpaths), but you'd need to use the node tool and one of the green arrow buttons to merge to a single subpath.
I don't know if this is a problem for anyone (indeed, it can be an advantage in some cases), I merely draw attention to the change so that others can decide.
After these changes, I think it is now safe to turn the "add mode" always on, i.e. remove the possibility to turn it off by pressing "a". Again, if anyone disagrees, just blow the whistle.
To assist in making the decision, I'll just identify a few things I can think of where disabling subpath-merging could be useful, so others can decide how common/useful these are:
Disabling merging two lines to a single *subpath* can be useful for the difference it makes to cap vs bevel (with thick stroking), or the difference it makes to whether a marker (arrowhead etc.) is shown.
Disabling merging two lines to a single *path object* can be useful to allow using different styles between the two lines. E.g. the pseudo-3D borders drawn by window managers and the borders around table cells drawn by graphical web browsers require using different darknesses for the four boundary lines, yet the lines must join up.
Another difference made by whether or not things are in a single *path object* is which marker (arrowhead) is used on the endpoints: whether start/end markers are used or whether intermediate markers are used. (Start/end markers are only for start/end of the whole path, intermediate markers are used for start/end of a subpath.)
Another advantage of having 0.41-style add mode is that more markers are available for merging to a single subpath.
Suggests that there's more than one toggle to consider:
- Toggle whether to add a newly-drawn line to the current path object when the new line doesn't meet any end-points.
- Toggle whether to add a newly-drawn line to the current path object when the new line does meet an existing end-point.
- Toggle whether to merge subpaths to a single subpath when the new line meets an existing endpoint.
I'll let others decide how useful these are. I'm happy so long as the default is that new lines that don't meet existing endpoints be a new path object (which is satisfied both by 0.41 and by current CVS, and no doubt by many other possible choices).
pjrm.