I must say that arrow keys moving is already much more powerful in
Inkscape
(both by pixels and by fixed increments), while using arrow keys for rotating objects is a very stupid idea, imho. Arrow keys just don't
stand
for rotation. I'm now implementing a comprehensive set of shortcuts for rotation using [ and ] keys with various modifiers.
[clearly i need to build and use InkScape a whole lot more and not be so badly uninformed about how things like the spiral tool work, but the machine i use for most of the day and write my email on has a fairly minimal selection of software]
With regard to shortcuts, you can consult
http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?KeyboardShortcuts
which I keep up-to-date as I add more shortcuts.
I'd need to think about it some more but I don't think using the arrow keys
- modifier for rotation is such a terrible idea but I'll wait and see (I
may well be wrong).
There are 2 rotation directions, but 4 arrow keys. Confusing.
I think there is plenty of room to use those modifiers to overload the arrow keys to allow rotation.
In fact, almost all possible modifiers are already used - see the wiki page. Ctrl-arrows pan the canvas; shift, alt, and shift-alt move objects.
However if you want to do things with [ and ] you will definately need to at least check the AZERTY keyboard layout and perhaps others to make sure that it is not too awkward to use those keys.
I think no matter where these keys are located (provided they are present at all), they are logical enough for this function.
Even if you do decide to use different keys it would certainly be nice to be able to move things by 1 pixels and N pixels increments (the N pixels is configurable not just fixed to 10 which i realised after writing the aformentioned notes).
The 10 multiplier may be made configurable, but I don't see much sense in that. It's like coins: you can pay any amount if you have 10-cent and 1-cent coins.
Thanks for the reply, I am very glad that you are also interested in providing users with keyboard accelerators for most functionality and I think it is a very good idea to have default keybinding for almost everything.
Yes, that seems to be my speciality in Inkscape :)
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bulia byak wrote:
The 10 multiplier may be made configurable, but I don't see much sense in that. It's like coins: you can pay any amount if you have 10-cent and 1-cent coins.
This is an interesting question, clearly only 1 cent is required, but if you are allowed two coins, what is the best denominations? Looking at: http://www.slacy.com/coins/ It would seem that geometric spacing is optimal, but that is assuming all distances are equal. In fact I suspect that smaller distances are more common, as a large move could be done with the mouse followed by fine tuning.
njh
On Fri, 19 Dec 2003, bulia byak wrote:
With regard to shortcuts, you can consult
http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?KeyboardShortcuts
which I keep up-to-date as I add more shortcuts.
There are 2 rotation directions, but 4 arrow keys. Confusing.
I thought about that, I dont have an answer.
I think there is plenty of room to use those modifiers to overload the arrow keys to allow rotation.
In fact, almost all possible modifiers are already used - see the wiki page. Ctrl-arrows pan the canvas; shift, alt, and shift-alt move objects.
(I'm really not in a position to check this out but) I suspect that if the keybinds are all already in use then is is a mistake. There are at least two signficantly different situations, when you have nothing selected and when you have something selected. For these two circumstances you can do quite differnt things.
If nothing specific is selected then you can make the implication that the action should happen to the page, Pan for example could be considered to be happening to the page, as you pan the view over the page.
Even if I have made a mistake and it really is a good idea to pan with the keys as suggested is it not redundant? Do we not have 'Page Up' and 'Page Down' with modifiers to go sideways?
However if you want to do things with [ and ] you will definately need to at least check the AZERTY keyboard layout and perhaps others to make sure that it is not too awkward to use those keys.
I think no matter where these keys are located (provided they are present at all), they are logical enough for this function.
Even if you do decide to use different keys it would certainly be nice to be able to move things by 1 pixels and N pixels increments (the N pixels is configurable not just fixed to 10 which i realised after writing the aformentioned notes).
The 10 multiplier may be made configurable, but I don't see much sense in that. It's like coins: you can pay any amount if you have 10-cent and 1-cent coins.
I think the 1 and 2 cent euro coins should be abolished! (And apparently most of the rest of Irish people find them very annoying too, I believe the Danes were smart enough not to bother with them at all).
Erm right, bring it back on topic - I mostly draw with the intention of printing onto an A4 page * however in a Vector graphics program such as Inkscape one might wish to important a very large blueprint (perhaps from an autocad file, .dxf i think) or some other vector drawing for a much large page in which case you would very likely want to be able to move the currently selected object(s) in much large increments than Ten pixels. It is not a very strong reason but I dont doubt there is a reasonably good excuse for Jasc to leave it configurable.
(* hypothetically, i rarely print things anymore)
I apologize in advance for any glaring errors and the abscence of any attempt to research and or verify much of anything I have just written but it is getting very close to Christmas and I will very likely and very soon be forced to back away from the computer and not return for at least a week.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
Sincerely
Alan Horkan http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/
participants (3)
-
Alan Horkan -
bulia byak -
Nathan Hurst