On So, 2004-10-17 at 17:28 -0400, MenTaLguY wrote:
On Sun, 2004-10-17 at 05:37, David Christian Berg wrote:
Though, I don't think that single clicking an object that is not in the group should go back to root editing, because when you edit a group you might accidently click an object, that you didn't want to and - zooooomm- you're not editing the group anymore. maybe a doubleclick outside the group could leave the group again.
I think that's something we need to work out in general for layers (of which groups are just a special case).
now this makes me smile: groups are a special case of layers... I always thought it was the other way around ;)
In most apps, clicking on an object in a different layer will switch layers, but for us, one layer can be the parent of another, possibly requiring different behavior...
I guess part of the question might be whether direct selection of objects which are "uncles" or "cousins" of the current layer should be possible, whether it should be done with a special click sequence/key combination, and under what conditions that should cause a layer switch.
well, iirc this is true for indesign (I hardly ever use layers in corel), but when it comes to bitmap editing (gimp) you can only work on the current layer... of course there are no objects to select... maybe shift+click would be a possibility to move to _any_ other layer. This includes siblings, parents, uncles, cousins, grandparents... parents in law?? ;)
On the other and I'm not sure I want to be able to leave a "layer" at all, after all, since there is no such thing as "root" once you call the groups layers. everything is in a group right from the beginning, since a canvas without a layer has to be a blank canvas.
In that instance there'd be no non-layers at the root level, so there'd be nothing to click on and kick you out.
yeah, not a root level, but can't siblings kick me out? (You know, I have an older brother.... )
One thing that will change is that currently the layer selector is disabled when you're at the root. That was just a temporary arrangement for 0.39 because of a combination of bugs and there not being any layers to select.
By the time we release 0.40 (or maybe 0.39.5, depending on how we split things), the default document template will start out with an initial layer rather than at the root level, so things should work a little more naturally then.
Yup.
So basically, with the introduction of layers it's about time to convert the old xml editor to a object treeview.
The plan is to introduce a new dialog and keep (though rewrite) the XML editor. There are probably three main views of the tree that we want, ultimately:
layers - just the layers (in visual order) [selections in this one change the current layer]
objects - just the SVG objects (in visual order) [selections in this one change the current selection]
xml - all xml nodes (in XML order) [selections in this one change the current selection, if the XML node corresponds to an SVG object]
now, I wonder if from the usability point of view we maybe want to call the top level groups layers, but any other still groups. I mean otherwise you'd have to go for "make layer" instead of "group" and "split layer" instead of "ungroup". Doesn't feel right to me.
also: what do you mean by main views? a tree view is a tree view... something like
[+] defs [-] canvas [+] layer1 [-] layer2 rectangle1 [-] group1 image12 [+] group2 [+] group3 object14 [+] layer3
and why keep the xml editor? There should be a UI for everything the xml editor can do, so the object tree lets you select any object and a properties dialog lets you set the stuff that you otherwise would set int he editor.. not sure if just one dialog though.