On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 9:13 AM, Alexandre Prokoudine <alexandre.prokoudine@...400...> wrote:
On Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 7:54 PM, Josh Andler wrote:
As an aside though, it could be a reference to how GIMP now does on-canvas text editing (in their development branch). http://libregraphicsworld.org/articles.php?article_id=34 If you scroll down to the on-canvas text part, note the floating panel which is available when you click into a text item. It's really a usability win (imho) over our approach with the tool controls bar or docked dialogs.
If an object has LPEs applied, how wicked would it be to have the control right next to the object? Note, the usability win is imho minimal mouse movement and making the proper editing tools more "obvious".
Just a minor observation... Currently we have a wicked system of spitting out LPE controls as is. If we do that on canvas, that is going to be a dozen of *our* generations damned by our beloved user base :) Just think about it: we'll probably have intestellar traveling by the time, and in that age of great wisdom and eternal friendship with extraterrestrial races our descendants will suffer from early 21st century superstitions caused by our wrongdoing :)
So before we go canvas, it's be jolly cool to figure out which controls could go and which controls could get in-place numeric input. And how that in-place numeric editing would work.
Nothing beats getting a random thought nuked. :) For the record, I wasn't thinking we should take action or that it's the best solution... just suggesting that we start imagining more UI-wise, but I can see where I wasn't particularly clear about that.
It boils down to, I think that they're actually doing some interesting things UI-wise with The GIMP that we should take note of. Test them out in their sandbox, read user and tester feedback about them, and see if they're worth adapting for our needs. I don't think all controls for all tools/features belong on canvas, but for text, personally, I really like what they've done. Maybe I just like it so much because the text tool in gimp actually feels usable to me now. It's definitely at least partially subjective in this case.
Oh, and for the record, the first place I'd want to see additional on-canvas controls is filters, Being able to naturally click-drag a blur on an object or move the light sources would be a big win imho (vs numeric input/dialog controls). That also would be easily achieved as it's similar to existing on-canvas controls we have.
Cheers, Josh