quinet@xxxxxxxxxx (Raphael Quinet) writes:
> I think that confusing the first category of users (those who do not
> think in terms of layers) would be worse. Many users are still using
> the Gimp as they would use xv, Windows Paint or other simple tools:
> they do not care about layers and they do not even know what they
> mean. I have witnessed this when I observed several of my colleagues
> using the Gimp. Although the concept of layers is powerful and simple
> to understand, this is simply not necessary for many users (not
> professionals, just casual users -- and this is the majority).
I still voute for always having alpha. Let's for the moment forget
about the fact that changing something in a new version will frustrate
users who know and expect a certain old behaviour. this is always the
case for any user visible change of the modus operandi.
Let's just think of your casual user who never understood nor even
heard of layers or that gimp has something like this. He just want's
to edit a single layer, and starts to clear a selection, or use the
eraser. In my opinion such a complete newbie wouldn't be surprised by
having the eraser/clers selection act like really clearing the image
i.e. removing parts of it completely. Maybe he would think what the
hell is this checherboard, but would very quickly become accustomed to
it. The behaviour of having the eraser effectively drawing in the bg
color isn't that much more intuitive.
I think the people which would be bitten most by changing stuff like I
propose would be old but still clueless gimp users.
jtl
