[sorry, deleted old posts had to start a new thread]
I said I'd take a look at how Adobe Photoshop handles groups of Layers and I was able to check Adobe Photoshop 7 and to be honest I wasn't impressed.
Adobe Photoshop allows you to have lots of seperate layers and it also allows you to create what looks like a folder in the Layer Palette so that you can put Layers inside the folder and group them together.
What I'm unimpressed by is that they depending on what you have selected - a Layer or a Layer Group Folder - the menu entries for "Layer, Merge Down" (and the other one) dynamically change lables and offer to Merge Layer Set. (I'm not sure about the specific wording, I only have very limited access to proprietary multimedia software so I'm describing this from memory).
If you are usign the Merge Down function and you hit a Layer Group in the stack you are stopped dead. No attempt is made to move into the group and merge the next layer, no prompt is given offering to merge the whole group or just the next layer. The workflow stops, dead end.
Inkscape cannot copy the dynamically changing menu behaviour because dynamically changing menu items almost always make for a bad user interface and even worse accessibility. However I do think this could be done better, my initial suggestion would be if "Merge Down" hits a Layer Group there would be a prompt offering to "Merge Next Only" or "Merge Group" but it is only a suggestion as I'm fairly sure Bulia has some implementation ideas of his own
Hope that helps. If you want me to get screenshots or try to better describe how Adobe Photoshop behaves please do ask.
Sincerely
Alan Horkan
Inkscape, Draw Freely http://inkscape.org Abiword is Awesome http://www.abisource.com