On Mon, 27 Sep 2004, jon wrote:
Date: Mon, 27 Sep 2004 00:35:08 -0500 From: jon <jon@...235...> To: Bryce Harrington <bryce@...260...>, Bob Jamison <rjamison@...357...> Cc: inkscape inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] "Canny edge detection" - meaning "clever" or "cautious"?
I think we are taking this whole thing way too far.
The devil is in the details.
If we notice these details then so will the users but they are less likely to think about how things might be improved.
If you want Inkscape to be an application that people praise for having a really good user interface the price you have to have the patience to tolerate endless feedback and filter out the most useful bits.
It also means that we have to take risks and try out the new ideas that bulias suggests but be flexible enough to change them later if problems emerge.
Canny Edge Detection is what is commonly used and sounds good.
It works and it is "good enough" but to stop there would be to stop where Open Source development was five years ago.
If we can make it work better or we can label things more clearly so that ordinary occassional users can dabble in Inkscape not the serious experts like yourself.
I never would have though that Canny meant anything other than 'clever' in this situation rather than "Edge Detection, using algorithm by Canny J." and although it may be common it is not obvious and it is not as clear as it could be.
Vacuum Unused Defs...sounds good too...when scrolling over the statusbar has further info that updates what these features accomplish.
You know what <defs> are but if we are to expect normal users to understand the implementation details of the SVG file format then we are doomed to produce an unusable mess that will scare off ordinary users and only expert users will want to touch.
We do want normal users dont we? We should make things difficult for them unless there is a good reaons for it and we are sure it is absolutely necessary. Having More users has a trickle down effect and means more developers and more contributors of all kinds. With the right attitude a large userbase can be nudged to generate useful feedback, and lots of favourable publicity (Mozilla being a good example)
We dont want users to give up on Inkscape and use OpenOffice.org Draw or Karbon14 instead do we? both are viable options if you do not particulary care about the SVG file format or the GTK toolkit and there are plenty of other alternatives even before you start to consider the commericial options.
What happened to having a little style...please no more email deluge.
Style?
If you stifle such open discussion and discourge exchange of ideas and fight against enthusiasm you only help to stagnate the project.
I'm sorry if the email is too much for you to manage but please suggest other ways we might help to make it more managable without stifling the conversation like providing clear subject lines, making sure messages thread properly and making sure to only quote the relevant parts of the discussion perhaps that might help you.
On high traffic lists that I find too difficult to manage I subscribe to the list digest and only respond every few days rather than to each individual post in a discussion.
By turning away reasonable suggestions you will only create an army of trolls bitching about your software, there are enough examples of that already, I thought Inkscape was forked to avoid that sort of attitude. Negativity only results in bad publicity, by your attitude on the list you represent the whole project whether that is your intention our not. The correct response is "yes but..."
Respectfully Jon I will not stop trying to improve Inkscape as best as I can in my own way.
Sincerely
Alan Horkan
http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/ Inkscape, Draw Freely http://inkscape.org Free SVG Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org