Alexandre Prokoudine wrote
Let's not allow the conversation degrade to "so, what?", shall we? :)
Sorry, it had to be a joke, maybe I should have placed a smile after it. I'm sorry you have taken the beginning of my reply as a provocation or, well... more than I intended to. :) After all we agree on almost everything.
Alexandre Prokoudine wrote
That is simply _not_ the point. My feelings are irrelevant. Inkscape shouldn't do what _someone feels_ is right. Inkscape should do what _is_ right. And that involves analysis and UX design.
I agree. It's what I was saying. Also if I'm not so sure that defining 'what _is_ right' is so easy. Actually, I'm not so sure that such an absolute definition can really exist, even after a very careful 'analysis and UX design'. That's why users' feedback is always welcome, after all.
Alexandre Prokoudine wrote
Can you say for sure that these are a good reference for what the largest part of Inkscape's users in general expect?
No, and neither can you. There was no study, see?
Sure, I can't and I didn't intend to. I've simply read about people saying that there's no point in looking around to what others have done because it's so clear what should be done that it's the only reasonable way to go. It seems that we both agree that a study would be welcome and individual personal impressions don't count too much until they are put together in significant numbers. IMHO, looking in the meantime to what other relevant software houses have done in the last decades could be a good starting point: there's a big chance that many people are already used to such behaviors.
Alexandre Prokoudine wrote
And that's also another perspective on defining your audience: do you expect them to go back and polish their work, or do you expect them to mostly do quick edits of arbitrary file formats?
I don't think this point is relevant. Everybody is free to use the software as they wish and as they can. We should focus on what the software can and cannot do: people will behave in response to this.
Alexandre Prokoudine wrote
IMHO, having Inkscape saving only in Inkscape's SVG format and exporting in everything else, hence putting PDFs and PNGs at the same level, would be a wrong decision.
It also depends on how you define Inkscape. Is it a generic vector graphics editor where file formats are treated equally? Or is it more of an SVG editor, with *some* support for other file formats?
This is the central point to speak about. My opinion is that Inkscape doesn't have only *some* support for other file formats. Or if it has, it's a limitation due to the development still in progress that will eventually be overcome. I won't say that Inkscape is only 'an SVG editor'. Even if it started like this, personally I don't use it as such: I use it as a good vector graphics editor, still with some bugs but a lot of workarounds too and an active community working to fix them and continuously adding new features. Surely the SVG format will always play a central role as it's the only one that will guarantee that all the features are going to be saved correctly and its structure partly dictates what Inkscape can and cannot do. But there are also extensions to the format so I won't say it's the only one that Inkscape can manage. Also, not everything can be saved in 'plain SVG' so you may say that there's no real vector graphics editor around as every one has its own "full-features" only format. There should be a survey on how many users do effectively use Inkscape for its SVG output only and how many just consider SVG as Inksape's internal format, then regularly produce their work on a different one.
Luca
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