I'm totally happy with the first section, where you describe how users see this issue. But I disagree with your possible solutions.
I don't think "user units" should be used at all. I don't think even the concept of user units should be used. Even after your generous explanation for me, all I got from it (so far, without re-reading and studying) is that I think "user units" means px, but it means a lot more than that too, which is still fuzzy. (Maybe it needs a better name as well?)
Of the 2 options:
1 -- go back to the old tried and true, px for native units 2 -- keep the new system but make it easier to use
I would prefer going back to the tried and true. Because even making the new system easier to use, there will still be times when the user needs to really understand it, to be able to set up Inkscape for some unique project. (And those who provide support need to really understand it, to be able to provide support for it.)
Is it really so necessary for Inkscape to use mm for native units? Is it really fair to make it so complicated for those who don't use mm? Going back to the old way doesn't make it harder for the mm users. They don't lose anything by going back. The old way makes it just the same for all use cases and user groups.
You know what all this sounds like to me? It sounds like finding a way to bend over backwards to touch your feet, even though bending over the front way already works very well (and has worked well from the beginning). Oh, don't worry, it won't hurt as much if you do it this way. If you can't do it that way, you'll have to do it this other way. But either way, now we all have to be gymnasts.
How I see it, is no one wins with this. It's a new feature which doesn't provide anything new or better. It just makes it harder for users who don't use mm, or who change their units often (including who provide support for them).
Anyway, thanks for taking the time to explain it. I will try to study all the messages and try to understand better. I don't have much hope of success, but I promise I will keep trying.
I thought I already posted that I made the feature request to revert, but I don't see the message. So here's the report I made:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1719162
And now I'll sign off for this topic, and let the developers do their thing :-)
Thanks again!
All best, brynn
-----Original Message----- From: Eduard Braun Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2017 5:40 AM To: brynn ; inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Cc: Inkscape User Community Subject: Re: [Inkscape-user] [Inkscape-devel] the Scale setting and Display units
Am 24.09.2017 um 11:33 schrieb brynn: Before 0.92, it was very, very simple, and easy to understand and easy to use. Now, it is not.
I think one of the main sources of confusion is the wording and design of the document properties dialog, not the choice of units themselves:
We have a setting called "Display units". As a user I'd expect this to only influence display (as the name suggests) but nothing else (i.e. I should be able to switch this at will without causing any change for my document) However, as soon as the user changes "display units" the "Scale" will change too! As a user I'm now frightened: Did I just change the size of my document? Should I revert to "Scale" = 1? (if they choose to do so it's very bad as then they'll mess up their drawing)
The help of the "Scale" input is not helpful: "User units per {display unit}" As a user I ask myself: What is a "user unit"? If I (the user) just set "display units" to what I (the user) want to be displayed - is that a "user unit"? It obviously is not... A user unit is (even if it has a name that might suggest differently) something the user should not be bothered with (we don't have that term explained or used anywhere else in Inkscape I think).
While I'm no UI expert (who is ever? ;-) ) I think a possible solution to that would be:
Rephrase "user units" to "{document,internal,SVG} units" or similar - something that makes clear that this is the unit stored in the resulting SVG document. (Problem: We used to call "Display units" "Document units" before 0.92, which was probably a bad choice and might cause ambiguity now)
Potentially collapse the whole "Scale" section by default (not just the "Viewbox" part) - users should probably never change it anyway (unless they know what they're doing) and usually they also should not have to. Add a big warning sign: "Changing scaling will change the layout of your document - is this really what you want?"
Rethink if "Scale" is a suitable term for what we are doing here. If I double the scale my document does not change it's size (but instead my content is scaled down). Maybe this is a language problem but my general impression is that in software "Scale" usually refers to "scaling (up) the whole image" (which we do not do) and not "changing the scale as on a map" (which is what we do).
*Optionally* expose "user units" (with a proper alias) as a dropdown - if the user sets "display units" and "user units" to mm the scale will become "1". (Problem: How do we now what to put for "user units" when opening a file? For new files we could store it. For old files we could do the math and try to guess, but it might be hard to impossible in many cases).
Regards, Eduard