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Inkscape 1.4.4

inkscape.org

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Re: Inkscape 1.4.4

#91

Post by sprucevoid »

Inkscape has many good features but also many rough edges. Fixing the command palette (shortcut key ?) would go a long way. On Windows it takes around 5 seconds for the palette search box to appear after a clean start of Inkscape 1.4.4. Typing is lagging and results are wildly irrelevant. That's a shame because Inkscape has so many powerful features tucked away in menus and side panes. A well working command palette makes it quick and easy for the user to use tools without exploring menu hierarchies or memorizing keyboard shortcuts.

For example if I type "rectangle" in Inkscape command palette I would expect the draw rectangle tool as a top match. Instead the top matches are:

  Create a Slicer Rectangle
  Create a Slicer Rectangle (No preferences)
  Triangle (No preferences)
  Clone original path (LPE)
  Lightness-Contrast (No preferences)
  Refractive Glass (No preferences)
  Refractive Gel A (No preferences)
There are dozens of more matches in the scrollable list but the draw rectangle tool does not appear to be one of them.

There have been several issue tracker issues about the command palette. Here is one from 2022 and still ongoing about the slow start https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/work_items/3227

Re: Inkscape 1.4.4

#95

Post by 2ndorderthought »

josephg wrote: post #62
2ndorderthought wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I remember my car broke down, it was trash worth maybe 200 in scrap metal at the time. The tow to the yard was like 100 or something. I was screwed and couldn't get rides to work. My buddy lent me a car he had for free. I did not complain once to anyone about the things wrong with that car, and I never will. I even fixed some small issues with it to return the favor. The guy and that car saved my livelihood at the ti…

Eh. I draw the line in a slightly different place. I think saying that some piece of software is bad is not an attack on the developers. It doesn't imply ill will, or entitlement or any of that. People are allowed to write whatever software they want. And its generally net positive to share that software, for free, with the world. These things are true at once: - Good work inkscape developers! Inkscape is used by lot…

I think you are right. But I also know what it's like to be on the other side of it. Taking it personally isn't the big issue.

Instead of celebrating a release the top comments are things like "this one thing doesn't work therefore trash, and unusable". Which reads like coercion for the devs to go spend a bunch of time and prioritize their life to satisfy someone at the free all you can download buffet.

The thing that sucks about it is. The devs will go fix that thing. Make a new release. Then the top comment will be some other bug, because all software has them. Then if there are no bugs it will be something else like the devs cousins dogs affiliation the the neighborhood cat. It just gets old to me.

Re: Inkscape 1.4.4

#96

Post by pxoe »

nathanmills wrote: post #29
pxoe wrote: post #21

Calligraphy pen/tool is still unusable, messy and less responsive (lower resolution, more angular, etc), much worse than in 0.92, and it's been this way ever since 1.0. It also now requires windows ink to be on, and they removed devices panel so you can't even tell if your device is recognized properly. It's bad with a tablet, but it's still just as bad and much worse in comparison even with the mouse. It's kinda dis…

Keep in mind that it's FREE and OPEN SOURCE software

Yeah, I'm keeping it in mind. 0.92 still works great. There's basically nothing that's so severely lacking in 0.92, or anything that would be so enticing in 1.x, so there's no pressure to switch at all, and it may as well stay broken forever.

It's a little odd to me that the tool regressed so badly in 1.x and stayed the same for five years though, even despite some apparent attempts to fix it, for something that i assume is a core tool (it's right there on the toolbar), though maybe not so much if it's so low priority that it stays unaddressed. It's not a situation where people are asking for something new to be added, it's a feature that worked fine before that got broken years ago and stayed broken. It's frankly bizarre to see hot new releases get touted year after year, while a part of core experience just stays broken.

But again, it's kinda fine because the old version is just there, it just makes for a bit of an odd caveat when recommending it to people, for them to stick with the old version because it works better (well, actually works at all). It's a little unfortunate for the new users that might not know that and will just get the latest version and won't experience a feature properly though. (like, if I was a new user to it and picked up any 1.x version and tried the tool there, it would be clear that it's unusable for drawing and it'd be immediately dismissed, even though it actually works pretty great in older versions)

Re: Inkscape 1.4.4

#97

Post by josephg »

2ndorderthought wrote: post #95
josephg wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eh. I draw the line in a slightly different place. I think saying that some piece of software is bad is not an attack on the developers. It doesn't imply ill will, or entitlement or any of that. People are allowed to write whatever software they want. And its generally net positive to share that software, for free, with the world. These things are true at once: - Good work inkscape developers! Inkscape is used by lot…

I think you are right. But I also know what it's like to be on the other side of it. Taking it personally isn't the big issue. Instead of celebrating a release the top comments are things like "this one thing doesn't work therefore trash, and unusable". Which reads like coercion for the devs to go spend a bunch of time and prioritize their life to satisfy someone at the free all you can download buffet. The thing tha…

I know what its like to be on the other side of it too. I've had plenty of things I've done posted to HN over the years. I've gotten all sorts of comments.

Honestly, I'm chuffed and always a little surprised when people read what I've written, or when they like my work. If someone says your software has a bug, that means they liked what you're doing enough that they took time out of their day to try it out. It means they care about the problem you're solving enough that they want you to fix it.

I'd take criticism every day over getting no response at all. Criticism of features means you're solving a problem people care about. If the feature they criticise is obscure, it means all the other features are working better.

I don't know if that point of view is teachable though. Even knowing all that, I feel criticism incredibly acutely in person. Stepping on stage and showing your work to a crowd is terrifying. But I think its good for us. It tempers us, somehow. Makes us more real.

Re: Inkscape 1.4.4

#98

Post by pxoe »

ltlnx wrote: post #32
pxoe wrote: post #21

Calligraphy pen/tool is still unusable, messy and less responsive (lower resolution, more angular, etc), much worse than in 0.92, and it's been this way ever since 1.0. It also now requires windows ink to be on, and they removed devices panel so you can't even tell if your device is recognized properly. It's bad with a tablet, but it's still just as bad and much worse in comparison even with the mouse. It's kinda dis…

Part of it would be solved in the next major release as you've seen in the issue. Another part would be fixing the tool itself which probably requires separate time and effort. Mind you that Inkscape is being worked on by volunteers until very recently where there are 2 new contractors specifically for fixing bugs in 1.5.

One thing about pen tool that can be kind of tricky to adjust even in 0.92 is Mass parameter, where even in that version there's not enough granularity literally just between 0, 1 and 2 (it honestly could use about a 100 levels to adjust between just 0 and 2), and the lack of granularity and pen control is made even more severe in 1.x where there's not enough granularity even between just 0 and 1, and even 1 already feels much slower than higher settings in 0.92. Though I'm not sure if fixing that would even be that pressing at all if it was just brought up to 0.92 level of performance.

I don't know if anything is solved in 1.5 dev build yet, but the calligraphy pen there seems to be even worse than before and worse than even in 1.4.4. It's frankly impressive. I take it nobody actually uses that tool for drawing at all (which would explain a lot really), otherwise the issues with it would be immediately glaring a while ago.

Re: Inkscape 1.4.4

#99

Post by bowsamic »

ltlnx wrote: post #88
bowsamic wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Inkscape is the only software that I see people get so defensive about when criticised. I even had the lead dev appear in my mentions and try and start fighting me on twitter when I complained on my own timeline about the performance on macOS. Weird culture

Would you like to name names? I don't think we have a lead dev currently.

No, I don’t want to name and shame. It was a few years ago

Re: Inkscape 1.4.4

#100

Post by WillAdams »

ltlnx wrote: post #33
WillAdams wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish they would consider Freehand/Virtuoso as an exemplar

What features of Freehand or Virtuoso would you like to see in Inkscape?

The pen tool is the big thing --- the ability to move a point when placing it using the control key while drawing w/ the pen tool is one thing I really miss, and in the context of the UI, the overall clean and straight-forward organization and layout, as well as supporting standard forms, so alt frees an off-curve node from association w/ the matching other, while shift constrains.
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