On 23-06-11 08:25, A. da Mek wrote:
Any reason why Inkscape's "precision setting" option limits "significant figures" instead of "decimal places"?
Probably because objects and groups can be transformed and the precision would be dependent on the scale.
You can also turn that argument around and say that the current system is not translation invariant. Basically there is no clear winner and the current system is usually more than good enough. I could see how it might be interesting to be able to make all values snap to a certain grid though, which would essentially limit "decimal places" (only a bit more general).
Placing a limit on "significant figures" forces arbitrarily higher precision for coordinates near the origin of the drawing.
Thus the use of relative coordinates is much better. Albeit it gives higher precision for short segments, however it can be an advantage if the fine details are stored with higher absolute precision than large shapes.
Nope. Inkscape goes to great lengths to ensure that when relative coordinates are used the points on the path have the exact same precision as when absolute coordinates are used. First of all, if absolute coordinates are "good enough", then relative coordinates should not need to be better. Secondly, relative coordinates are used in Inkscape to reduce the size of path data, so using an effectively higher precision than with absolute coordinates defeats their purpose. Finally, in practice it causes no end of trouble to use a different discretization for relative coordinates than for absolute coordinates.
Maybe it would be best to relate the precision not to individual coordinates but to the bounding box of the path.
Ah yes, I've thought about things like that as well, but when thinking this through you quickly realize that it would be way better to use a local feature size... To make a long story short, it doesn't take long to get to a point where it becomes obvious that it might be best to simply stick to a certain number of significant digits and be done with it. After all, the default of 8 digits is quite enough for pretty much any drawing. But hey, if you've got a good suggestion, let's hear it.