On Mon, 2005-04-18 at 16:48 -0500, aaron@...749... wrote:
bulia byak wrote:
So, in order to make this easier:
- if an extension works with selection, the output should contain only
that selection with the selection applied and nothing else;
- if the extension creates a new object, it should not copy anything
from the original at all, just create a new document with that new object;
- on load, the new document should at least be centered, and ideally
zoomed into, the object it has;
- it may also have some sort of text saying "Use copy and paste to
move this to the original window".
What do you think?
I personally would much rather wait for effects to be implemented properly. By that I mean that they affect the document in the user's window preserving the name and undo, etc. Anything else will be clumsy. I think your suggestion is workable but only temporarily. Implementing it would be too much of a burden both on you inkscape developers and script authors. And in the end I don't think it will make users very happy. I think that time would be better spent learning how to keep the document in the same window. Ted, Bryce or someone else who is aquainted with the code should comment.
I agree with Aaron 100% here. I think that there are a few things to be done before enabling effects (removing it from an obscure option in the preferences)
- Add user extensions. Being able to correctly use ~/.inkscape/extensions to put extensions in.
- Fix the double window, make effects work like all the other entries in the menu. I think this is what we meant when we started with "first class extensions"
- Grouping. There needs to be some way to organize the effects so that they start to collect in submenus, in an orderly fashion. This functionality should also be extended to input/output extensions to make the open/close/import dialogs a little more orderly.
- Fix undo/redo. Currently effects don't work with undo/redo. The effect subsystem should protect these from any extension -- they're very important to end users trying out functionality. If they loose work, they'll forever be scared of the Effects menu.
That's the order that I plan on tackling these in (though undo/redo may end up being second as I start playing with XML). Anyone who'd like to work ahead is welcome :)
--Ted