On 11/23/05, Tavmjong Bah <tavmjong@...8...> wrote:
But why can't the "last set fill/stroke color" be changed prior to use?
In part, because of its name :) You can't become "the last president" until you are elected president at all :)
But in part, this is to keep things simple and logical. Compare two sequences of actions:
1. I draw a rect; I see that it's wrong color; I change the color.
2. I remember that I have a wrong "current color"; I change it; then I draw the rect.
Both sequences give the same end result and contain the same number of actions. However, 2 has the big disadvantage that I have to _remember_ (or at least check) what the current color is, and I need to figure out how to change that color as opposed to changing the color of an object. All this means extra unnecessary mental activity and learning new concepts. And if we agree to your proposal that "current color is changed by Fill&stroke when there's no selection", then 2 may actually take one action _more_ than 1: you'll have to deselect before you can change the current color.
Besides, the "No objects selected" in the Fill&stroke dialog is often a useful visual clue to the status of selection. If this dialog will be "always on" there will be no end of frustration when users will think they are acting on selection when in fact they are just changing the "current color". It will be a serious usability issue.
However, what you propose does make sense for another way of setting colors - for the Swatches palette, because that palette does not reflect the status of selection at all. And you know what, this functionality is already there! Open Swatches; make sure nothing is selected; click on any color. Now if you draw a rect, it will have that color.
Summarizing, you already have what you ask for in Swatches, but we cannot do the same in Fill&stroke because it will make it harder to use, not easier.
P.S. As a "usability hall of shame" footnote, in the same situation (clicking on a color swatch with nothing selected) Xara always displays a "do you want to set the color as default for new objects" dialog. This used to drive me mad.
-- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org