On Tue, Nov 07, 2006 at 02:05:50PM -0400, bulia byak wrote:
On 11/7/06, Bryce Harrington <bryce@...983...> wrote:
Have you tried editing /usr/share/inkscape/ui/keybindings.rc?
Bryce, the file to edit for remapping keys is called share/keys/default.xml.
Can you put a note about this into the Tips and Tricks tutorial or the Keys document? I had checked those for info about this before replying but didn't see anything there. (Thus why I posed it as a question instead of a statement.)
(By the way, another annoying duplication is units.txt/xml. Bryce, can you please remove the one which is not enabled currently?)
Well, units.xml was something Jon Cruz started after I implemented the units stuff using the units.txt file. The units.txt file is pretty easy to edit and has worked adequately, but I can see why some people might want it in xml. Unfortunately, the units.xml stuff never actually worked, and it wasn't clear what the plan was for making it work, so it's just been there disabled all this time.
Anyway, so since no further work's been done in the units.xml direction, I guess it can be dropped... Attached is a patch that should do it.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to get a successful build of inkscape on either of my machines for a few weeks, so can't easily test it. (I get messages about issues with extensions, missing keys/default.xml, etc. and just haven't had time to investigate) Could you apply this patch and see if it doesn't break anything (check the units in the transform dialog), and commit it if so?
However, while keys/default.xml file gives you a lot of freedom, you cannot assign just any action to any key, yet. This file only affects global actions. Some commands in Inkscape are not made global actions yet (such as centering) so you can't bind them to keys. All global actions (even those that are not assigned any keys by default) are listed in that file and can be reassigned. Read the comments in that file for more info.
Then would it be possible to have a shortcut key that does vertical and horizontal center alignment? This tends to be one of the most common kinds of alignment, so if it had a shortcut key, it would reduce how often one has to have the align dialog open, which would trim a bit of visual clutter.
Fwiw, in my own personal use, where I run into this the most is for centering text on boxes. In most programs it's possible to edit text on a box and have it automatically be aligned and centered in the shape, so as you edit it, it always stays correct, however in Inkscape there is no such capability, so you have to manually re-center stuff a lot, thus (I think) the desire for having a shortcut key to do this.
Oh, there is also a bug in text centering - write some text, then change it from left-aligned to center-aligned. The text then moves from its current position to half its width to the left. This bug has been there since Sodipodi days...
Bryce