On Mon, 6 Nov 2006, Michael Grosberg wrote:
Date: Mon, 6 Nov 2006 14:02:39 +0000 (UTC) From: Michael Grosberg <preacher_public@...9...> Reply-To: Inkscape User Community inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net To: inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net Subject: [Inkscape-user] My recent experience with Inkscape
I've been working with Inkscape a lot lately, and while it was mostly a lot of fun, I could think of a number of small changes that could make Inkscape even better.
Most of them seem to not be so difficult to implement as far as I can tell.
It usually seems that way until you are nose deep in the code trying to do it yourself, so unless you are a C++ programmer it is very hard to know for sure what is easy.
I'm not sure if this is the right place, but I didn't want to just post a bunch of enhancement requests - I'd rather get some user and developer feedback first.
The Inkscape request tracker on sourceforge is the right place to post suggestions but sometimes it is better to discuss suggetions first. Also when you do get around to posting requests please do try to: log in; check for duplicates; and provide plenty of reference information if possible. Reference information such as links to this discussion in the mailing lists archives, descriptions and screenshots if you have them, and be careful not to assume developers are familiar with competitors software as they may not have access to it.
So, here's my list:
The layer window icons are not identical to those on the layer menu. While this makes Inkscape similar to Gimp, it also makes its own visual language inconsistent! I think Inkscape should be consistent with itself first. Plus, the layer icons on the menu are so much better looking.
This reminds me of another inconsistency Gimp uses the term "New Layer" in the menus but Inkscape uses the term "Add Layer". I've even created a quick patch to change the label, I'll leave adding the same Ctrl+Shift+N shortcut as GIMP for another day. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=1591552&gro...
The layer dialog seems to be using the stock gnome icons and although I can understand why some people might prefer the menu icons which are more specific to just Layers I think using the GTK stock icons in both places would make things easier for maintaince and make it easier and more consistent for anyone creating themes.
== Snap ==
I'd like to see menu items and keyboard shortcuts to globally turn snap on and off. Ideally, they should be similar to Adobe's (with the same keyboard shortcut), and placed in the "View" menu.
Things were rearranged and efforts were made to try something different with the snap options and keep the menus relatively tidy. Unfortunately this hasn't worked out as well as hoped and I do think a menu item for snapping to grid will need to be reintroduced.
Yes, these all exist in the document preferences, but I find I turn snap on and off a lot, even while working on a single path (imagine wanting to snap just one or two nodes here and there), and I see a need for something more useable than having a large floating dialog that takes a lot of screen space.
[spelling: use, usable, usability. sorry pet peeve of mine when people spell that word incorrectly.]
Similarly, I'd also like to have menu items to toggle different snap modes on and off. They should be placed in a sub-menu right after the "snap" toggle, and the sub-menu labeled as "Snap To...". If the "global snap" mentioned above is turned off, then (as in Adobe products) these have no effect.
I have some concerns about the menus getting horribly cluttered but I think several other programs do things like this and it may be unavoidable if we are to give users what they expect and would be comfortable with.
Hiding and locking is not very easy right now. For example, I don't see a way to hide or lock multiple selections. There's a need for "Hide selected", "Lock selected", "Unhide All", "Unlock All" menu items in the "Object" menu. Possibly also "Hide" and "Lock" as right-click menu items.
I believe this work is still in progress. Features shown in the context menu always need to be shown elsewhere.
Inkscape should remember all floating dialogs' show/hide status on exit so that if they were visible when Inkscape terminates, they are visible in the next session.
there are few existing request along these lines and I doubt anyone will argue with the idea the trick will be getting someone interested in doing it.
"Swatches" should probably move from the "Object" menu to the "view" menu as they are not related to objects.
... or maybe even moved into a Windows menu with the other Panels/Palettes like another program we know
/me dons asbestos suit, ducks and covers
I don't think the "Export Bitmap" dialog should switch between "Page", "Drawing" or "selection" when the selection is changed. In my experience, sometimes you export the entire page a number of times, while making small changes here and there. All the while, the export dialog automatically switches to "selection" whenever you do something and then switches back to "drawing". You have to return it to "drawing" all the time. I can see how the current setup is useful - when exporting multiple selections as multiple files - but I think the earlier use pattern I mentioned is more common. At least, a method to turn this behavior off should be supplied.
providing loads of behaviours to turn things on and off gradually becomes harder and harder to maintain and test properly. hopefully a better overall solution can be found that requires less fiddling around and micro-optimisations.
When copying and pasting objects between files, stops in gradients should be automatically renamed so that objects don't accidentally receive the wrong gradient because of two different gradients in the two files having the same name. Yes, this happened to me a number of times!
There are known issues will gradient names colliding on imported files, possibly a symptom of the same underlying problem.
The last one is an important bug fix for us Windows users: make all dialogs and tool windows float above the canvas.
I believe this sort of works now and much effort has gone into fixing it. It would help if you could try out a recent testing build.
I'd like to hear your feedback, especially developers!
I'd encourage you to file at least one or two request when this discussion tails off. Thanks for your feedback and thanks for choosing Inkscape.
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/