Re: [Inkscape-devel] Re: layer commands we need
On Sun, 6 Mar 2005, bulia byak wrote:
Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 18:37:34 -0400
From: bulia byak <buliabyak@...400...>
To: Alan Horkan <horkana@...44...>
Cc: Inkscape is a vector graphics editor
<inkscape-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net>
Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] Re: layer commands we need
On Sun, 6 Mar 2005 22:12:19 +0000 (GMT), Alan Horkan
<horkana@...44...> wrote:
> You want to Include "Merge Visible" but not both with "Flatten
Image"?
> I suppose that works, hadn't thought of it that way. Hopefully it wont
> confuse artists with bad habits too much.
Yes.
> Siblings seems extremely confusing to me, I hardly ever use the word
> siblings (brothers, sisters, family but almost never siblings) and I'm a
> native English speaker and as I user I wouldn't be sure what exactly it
> might mean (i did already have to ask) so it is bordering on complex
> jargon.
It's a standard term in XML and in pretty much anything tree-like. Our
layers are hierarchical, so it's natural for us to use it. How else
would you call layers which have the same parent as the current one?
I understand now. You are thinking in terms of Trees.
I am only thinking of Layers in terms of stack (a very shallow tree).
The way I understand what you are talking about is something quite
different from the traditional concepts of Layers.
Tonight I will look at how Adobe Photoshop handles what it calls Layer
groups, which is essentially several layers under the same parent.
Perhaps that will provide simpler terminology and something that graphics
users might already be familiar with.
Perhaps most of the time one would use "Merge down" to
merge just two
layers. But there must also be a way to merge all siblings, and for a
parent, to merge all children into the parent.
I'd imagine that as you merge down the tree could be flattened in the
process when only one layer was remaining at that level of the tree it
would merged down onto the next branch of the tree.
That's because there's no easy way currently to make
sublayers. Once
this is in, they will be quite common I believe. Adobe has
hierarchical layers too.
I dont know if Adobe Illustrator has this kind of hierachical layers yet.
In a vector graphics the objects are all seperate and can easily be moved
around, grouped, move up and down the z-order whereas in a raster
graphics program you almost need to create a new layer for each and every
object if you want that same kind of flexibility.
Thanks for your patience. I think I understand much better now.
Sincerely
Alan Horkan
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