NEW: keyboard shortcuts for adobe illustrator and macromedia freehand + Low Hanging Fruit UI task + language task
That's right, I committed some more patches earlier this week (which sf.net's mailing list seemingly did didn't deliver).
There are now the options for adobe-illustrator-cs.xml and macromedia-freehand-mx.xml in the inkscape share/keys/ folder.
It would be really great to have UI in our preferences to select a different keyboard shortcuts preference. This would be a nice low hanging fruit task. Has anyone started this?
If no one has started this, there are a few of steps:
1.) create a preference for which keys xml file to use
2.) create ui for selecting the keys in our Inkscape Preferences... dialog
3.) add necessary code to get keyboard shortcuts selection to work
4.) EXTRA CREDIT: for you UI to be able to create, edit and duplicate current configs so that they may be user created...
Also, along these lines would be to create some simple UI for setting a default language for Inkscape from the languages we have translated. While ppl. may set this from the commandline, this would help our translators and basic users. Basically, you would take the same approach as step 1-3 above...for languages, we would have to make the change active on restart...however, for keys, I'm not sure if we could make them reset during an active Inkscape process. Does anyone know if this is possible?
It would actually be great to do both while Inkscape is running...
Jon
On Fri, 2006-08-25 at 11:34 -0700, Jon Phillips wrote:
It would be really great to have UI in our preferences to select a different keyboard shortcuts preference. This would be a nice low hanging fruit task. Has anyone started this?
If no one has started this, there are a few of steps:
1.) create a preference for which keys xml file to use
2.) create ui for selecting the keys in our Inkscape Preferences... dialog
Well, when we originally discussed this I thought that we had decided that we didn't really want a UI for it as to discourage it's use. Really, we want people to use Inkscape as Inkscape, not to encourage their use of a crutch. Same thing with the menus XML file.
--Ted
On Fri, 2006-08-25 at 21:07 -0700, Ted Gould wrote:
On Fri, 2006-08-25 at 11:34 -0700, Jon Phillips wrote:
It would be really great to have UI in our preferences to select a different keyboard shortcuts preference. This would be a nice low hanging fruit task. Has anyone started this?
If no one has started this, there are a few of steps:
1.) create a preference for which keys xml file to use
2.) create ui for selecting the keys in our Inkscape Preferences... dialog
Well, when we originally discussed this I thought that we had decided that we didn't really want a UI for it as to discourage it's use. Really, we want people to use Inkscape as Inkscape, not to encourage their use of a crutch. Same thing with the menus XML file.
--Ted
That makes sense...still good to have them there...would we be against a patch? I think the more switchers the better...
Jon
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On Fri, 2006-08-25 at 21:13 -0700, Jon Phillips wrote:
On Fri, 2006-08-25 at 21:07 -0700, Ted Gould wrote:
On Fri, 2006-08-25 at 11:34 -0700, Jon Phillips wrote:
It would be really great to have UI in our preferences to select a different keyboard shortcuts preference. This would be a nice low hanging fruit task. Has anyone started this?
Well, when we originally discussed this I thought that we had decided that we didn't really want a UI for it as to discourage it's use. Really, we want people to use Inkscape as Inkscape, not to encourage their use of a crutch. Same thing with the menus XML file.
That makes sense...still good to have them there...would we be against a patch? I think the more switchers the better...
I'm not against distributing the different key bindings with the Inkscape binary.
--Ted
On Fri, 25 Aug 2006, Ted Gould wrote:
Date: Fri, 25 Aug 2006 21:07:18 -0700 From: Ted Gould <ted@...11...> To: Jon Phillips <jon@...235...> Cc: Inkscape Development Mailing List inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] NEW: keyboard shortcuts for adobe illustrator and macromedia freehand + Low Hanging Fruit UI task + language task
On Fri, 2006-08-25 at 11:34 -0700, Jon Phillips wrote:
It would be really great to have UI in our preferences to select a different keyboard shortcuts preference. This would be a nice low hanging fruit task. Has anyone started this?
If no one has started this, there are a few of steps:
1.) create a preference for which keys xml file to use
2.) create ui for selecting the keys in our Inkscape Preferences... dialog
I think a feature ordinary users cannot find doesn't really exist, if you know what I mean. Putting it in the preferences dailog or in a seperate keybindings dialog of its own makes it more likely that users will be able to discover it. (GIMP does the former but the preferences dialog can be a little cramped. Both Macromedia and Adobe do the latter if I recall correctly and that alone is a big audience right there.)
Well, when we originally discussed this I thought that we had decided that we didn't really want a UI for it as to discourage it's use.
I did have concerns that providing these keyboard shortcuts would be used as an excuse for the default keybindings to stagnate. It is good to get users to try out the Inkscape defaults but let us not presume those keybindings are ideal.
Many were keybindings were inherited from Sodipodi, others were compromises chosen from the keybindings not already taken for something else.
Really, we want people to use Inkscape as Inkscape,
... but what is Inkscape, it is not a fixed target!
Having these different set of keyboard shorcuts allows developers to be more objective about changing the default keybinding. The goal can be making the default keybindings as learnable, consistent, and sensible as possible. (The defaults are what beginners see, advanced users are the ones best able to switch to another set of keybindings.)
not to encourage their use of a crutch.
Having these sets of keybindings alleviates the pressure to for the Inkscape defaults directly copy other software, or be held to ransom by the existing keybindings.
I am hoping users will say they tried the Inkscape defaults but there were one or two keybindings they really missed or felt were awkward, or maybe tell us how another program provided a faster way to accomplish the same task so they did need a keybinding for it.
Same thing with the menus XML file.
I think GIMPShop is but one example showing that if it is possible sooner or later someone will probably try it, so it makes sense to accept patches so long as things do not become unmaintainable and bring in these contributors. Give the people what they want*.
Sincerely
Alan Horkan
Inkscape http://inkscape.org Abiword http://www.abisource.com Open Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org
Alan's Diary http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
* I fully expect some witty counterpoint, preferably without invoking Godwins law.
On Fri, 2006-08-25 at 21:07 -0700, Ted Gould wrote:
Well, when we originally discussed this I thought that we had decided that we didn't really want a UI for it as to discourage it's use. Really, we want people to use Inkscape as Inkscape, not to encourage their use of a crutch. Same thing with the menus XML file.
Speaking as the person who implemented the keybindings feature, the plan was to have a UI all along; I've just not had time to do so.
It's worth nothing that configurable keybindings aren't just for aping the bindings of other applications, they're also useful for creating keybindings optimized for a particular working style. John Bintz, for instance, has a set of keybindings optimized for the set of features he uses for illustration (see share/keys/right-handed-illustration.xml).
-mental
On Mon, 2006-08-28 at 15:29 -0400, MenTaLguY wrote:
It's worth nothing that configurable keybindings aren't just for aping the bindings of other applications, they're also useful for creating keybindings optimized for a particular working style. John Bintz, for instance, has a set of keybindings optimized for the set of features he uses for illustration (see share/keys/right-handed-illustration.xml).
Ah, and I forgot about John's excellent post on this very subject. Too distracted lately. :/
-mental
participants (4)
-
Alan Horkan -
Jon Phillips -
MenTaLguY -
Ted Gould