On Fri, 12 Nov 2004, Jakub Friedl (lists) wrote: > Date: Fri, 12 Nov 2004 16:57:51 +0100 > From: "Jakub Friedl (lists)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Alan Horkan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > GDev <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [Gimp-developer] canvas background options > > > I'm surprised that enough users would be changing the setting often enough > > to want to be able to set it on a once off per window basis, I would have > > though that a single global preference would to override the toolkit > > default would have been enough > > oh please no. or is the gimp supposed to be used only by beginners and > not by advanced users?
That line of reasoning can be used to justify adding a whole lot of crud to the gimp that only really benefits the advanced users. if anything recent development has been removing little used plugins to reduce the maintainance burden. the gimp is the de facto standard for image editing on Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, and I'm sure a few others. I there hardly any other piece of graphics software as likely to be available as the gimp. As such is extremely important to cater to ordinary users. I don't want to make the gimp into something that "advanced users" cannot use quickly and efficiently either, but an uncluttered streamlined user interface should be of benefit to everyone. I wish you would have resited the urge to overreact, all this is just dicussion and although I would prefer not to have the Canvas Padding feature I do not think my suggestions have yet been convincing enough. > a month ago i was making three images to be placed on a wall, each of > them on different one, painted with different colour. i was painting > them at the same time (they were a series) > and i enjoyed the possibilty to see them all against the proper colour. I'm still convinced it is a minority feature and although it may be useful I'm not convinced it is useful enough for most users to deserve such prominant location in the menus. Gimp 2.2 seems to be largely decided, and it is unlikely that my suggestion would be taken on board until after 2.2 has been released. > BTW: if you feel that the gimp should be simplified as possible for > beginners, I believe it should be simplified for everyone, most usability improvements are optimisation of a different kind and just as accessibility benifts more than just the disabled so too should good usability benfit everyone. I'm not arrogant enough to claim I'm an expert, but I thought I should be able to discuss the change before 2.2 and if I didn't do it now I'd probably be berated for not having mentioned it sooner. > wouldnt be possible to keep advanced features visible for advanced users > but not for beginners? but not remove them completelly? single option in > preferences (or in gimprc file) which would enable more advanced > features which some consider as interface clutter but others may need > them? Did you use Nautilus when it had a Normal mode and an Advanced mode? It was a disaster because most users wanted one or two of the supposedly "Advanced features" which meant turing on a whole lot of other advanced features. It is better to think of the task and the results you are trying to achieve and see if there is a way to stream line the process. I do not doubt that it is useful for you to have a way to easily compare your image against various backgrounds. What I am asking is if the current implementation is really the best way to provide that feature? You have made it clear that you want to be able to set a different background colour for each image. Do you set different colours for different views of the same image? If so might it not be beter even better to reorganise this functionality in a way that allowed you to more quickly preview an image with various different background rather than having to choose a different back colour each time you wanted to make your comparisions. If you describe in more detail how exactly you go about your work I might be able to refine my suggestions. I'm trying to make things easier for _everyone_ including you :) Sincerely Alan Horkan http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/ Inkscape, Draw Freely http://inkscape.org Free SVG Clip Art http://OpenClipArt.org _______________________________________________ Gimp-developer mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer
