On Sat, 11 Dec 2004, bulia byak wrote:
Date: Sat, 11 Dec 2004 08:17:13 -0500 From: bulia byak <buliabyak@...400...> To: Alan Horkan <horkana@...44...> Cc: inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] Usability, Vacuum Defs and Tool options. [Re: [Inkscape-devel] Inkscape on LWN]
Perhaps the author of the article can tell us why he thought the feature was unusual or confusing enough to be worth mentioning.
I think the only thing slightly confusing about it is the name. But SVG has <defs>, and we just use its terminology because we are an SVG app. And "vacuum" is very descriptive for what it does.
I said I thought it was a bad idea as soon as I saw and now an independant reviewer is saying it too, so I hope you will reconsider how this is implemented which should be easier than trying to fix me and other users who don't think it makes sense.
Other users think it makes a lot of sense.
I'm not disagreeing that the functionality makes sense (at least not anymore) just how it is exposed to users.
It was even suggested to provide this command as a command line option, which I'm going to do.
looks like people need an SVG equivalent to HTML tidy, which I can understand because like I said the feature is good just not the interface.
Another issue I am having is with the how the tool options palette works at the moment. First let me say that it is a great way to provide easy to find context information for each tool and it does that job rather well. My problem is with trying to use it the 'tool options' to set the properties of the current object. From seeing how similar tool options palettes in other programs work and because I associate those options firmly with the tool, it is very confusing to try and use it to change the current object.
If you're talking about the panel above the canvas, then it's not "tool options."
The equivlent functionality in Adobe Photoshop is called the "Tool Options Palette" and in the Gnu Image Manipulation Program it is called the "Tool Options Dialog". Similarly with Jasc Web Draw it is called the tools options palette.
Unusually Xara X calls this the "Infobar". (Xara also has a Standard Toolbar with New,Save,etc on it http://www.xaraxone.com/webxealot/xealot16/html/features.htm )
Use the correct terminology and you won't have this problem :)
You may find that amusing but I don't.
You are assuming that the terminlogy used for Inkscape is the most correct, which is not an assumption I'm willing to make.
This thing is called "tool controls" now, and it provides exactly this - additional controls for the tool.
Semantics aside the point is even you are talking about the tools, not formatting the object properties after they have been created. While it works, it is not as logical as how it is done in other programs (like Adobe Photoshop) and it makes the tools a little more complicated.
Other applictions would/do leave open (their equivalent of) the Fill and Stroke dialog and it would be more obvious where to go to change the properties of the currently selected object(s)
Sure, eventually there will be a color palette at the bottom of the window for this.
As these auxilliary palettes/dialog improve I hope the overloading and complication of the "tool controls" to also change the properties of the currently selected object wont be necessary.
Sincerely
Alan Horkan
Inkscape, Draw Freely http://inkscape.org Abiword is Awesome http://abisource.com