On 10/14/05, Alan Horkan <horkana@...44...> wrote:
F3 was used for the Zoom tool Shift F7 is now used for the Zoom tool (as well as other keybindings)
I object (even though Xara has it that way). Zoom is a very common operation.
F4 was used for the Rectangle tool Shift F3 is now used for the Rectangle tool
F5 was used for the Arc/Ellipse tool Shift F4 is now used for the Arc/Ellipse tool
I object (even though Xara has it that way). I can live with ellipses on a shift-key, but rectangle is a very common operation.
Overall, I would accept those keys but only if they are a part of a _complete_ Xara-like keyboard profile. Changing just a few keys to map to Xara, but leaving all others unchanged, strikes me as almost useless. It's like cutting off a dog's tail in small pieces.
Like I said in the bug, any wholesale key reassignment patch is only acceptable if it adds a preference option making it possible to use the old layout as well
Does everyone feel that way? Are other changes held to such a high standard? If every change was required to maintain the old behaviour it would be a lot tougher to make progress.
Of course not all changes are treated like that. But this is a very sensitive area that affects every single user. Even minor keybinding changes need to be discussed before implementation, but these are not minor at all.
It's certainly an area where more options is better than less options, but only provided that these options are internally consistent and have some serious justification for existence (examples of such justification include complete - not partial - correspondence to an existing app such as Xara). Just changing a bunch of major keys unconditionally is certainly not acceptable.
Inkscape version 0.42 will always provide the old layout.
Oh thank you. You're so generous.
I have already suggested this could be tried out and reverted before 0.43 if you people feel very strongly about it. Putting it in even for a while might encourage people to discuss it and come up with better ideas.
Some of us use CVS inkscape every day for real work, you know. You can provide your own binaries for people to test, any time. But committing a patch that has a too high chance of being reverted is not productive. And your patch, as I just explained, has a 100% chance of being reverted unless you add to it a way to keep using the old layout.
Maybe it is not as hard as one might think to move this area forward in some small incremental way?
Of course, this is what I'm trying to tell you. It's very easy to add a prefs checkbox saying "Use Xara-like keyboard shortcuts". The Xara layout would be also hardcoded, but this is not a big problem for now, since Xara's keys are not going to change. If you feel so passionate about that, why don't you do it, or convince anyone else to do it? (Note that you'll also need to provide a complete documentation of your layout, in the form of a keys-xara.xml file modeled on the existing keys.xml.)
It is not about just you or just me and I do sincerely believe these changes will improve things for a wider audience. Given your enthusiastic comments for Xara over the past few months I'm amazed you are not happier or even enthusiastic about these changes which more than anything else make inkscape more like Xara.
I explained that many times. It's not my goal to make Inkscape like Xara. My goal is to make the best vector editor. For that, I borrow ideas which I consider worthy from wherever I find them.
-- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org