I guess Joshua's message was meant to be sent to the list.
Begin forwarded message:
From: Joshua Facemyer / Impressus Art <faceman@...1574...> jiho wrote:
On 2008-March-17 , at 18:12 , J.B.C.Engelen@...1578... wrote:
Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] sorting out PS/EPS/PDF export mess
I agree completely with this. It makes sense to "save"/"save as" in svg format, and export anything else, since that's the only format Inkscape actually edits.
BTW, is there a difference between "export" and "save a copy"?
I don't understand the difficulties with the current system. Save = understood Save as = save as different filename. Whatever filetype you want.
To me that's the issue: being able to save current drawing as whatever file type => be annoyed by the nag screen telling you to save it back as svg, and risk data loss if the nag screen is discarded. Why allow the user to shoot him/herself in the foot when there's an easy alternative?
I agree completely. It makes much more sense to have an export function for all filetypes except those one would normally be able to edit directly in Inkscape. This is how most apps implement the save function, from my experience. Any other file format is usually covered under the export function.
I am always saving as pdf, trying to resave my document as an svg, then wondering why in the world pdf isn't an export option - it's a pain in the rear every time I save as pdf.
Save a copy = save as different filename but afterwards stay working on current filename. Again, whatever the type.
This is OK. Just redundant with export. Since there's an export panel, that can stay open all the time, with lots of options already there, I was thinking that integrating all export under it would be the best UI.
I don't think it's redundant after Terry's explanation:
Noooo. :-) "save a copy" is a common option in a lot of apps. for saving backups without changing file names. I.e. your file might be massive_project.svg, and you can use "save a copy" to save massive_project_a.svg, massive_project_b.svg, massive_project_c.svg etc. while you're working in case something goes wrong or you come to regret a design decision. So it's not necessarily related to export at all. I'd say leave it in.
That makes sense, and it's not confusing if it just does a one-time save of the current file in it's current format (which, ideally, would be Inkscape SVG by default, with plain SVG and compressed SVG as alternates).
Well, assuming SVG is also available as export (which it probably should if it can give you the possibility, as with other formats, to export only a part of current drawing) you could just export your work regularly and the result would be the same. One could even imagine having things such as special expressions in the export dialog name which would transform into unique characters e.g. massive_project_%n.svg which would give massive_project_1.svg then massive_project_2.svg and so on. (or you could take advantage of the text-based nature of svg and use a version control system but that's a whole other story ;) )
Bulia, are you already working on this or should we open a blueprint to summarize the ideas and opinions?
JiHO --- http://jo.irisson.free.fr/