(sorry for the incorrect date in my previous mail)
On Mon, 21 May 2001, Nick Lamb <njl98r@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Mon, May 21, 2001 at 05:47:33PM +0200, Raphael Quinet wrote:
One of the things that has been mentioned several times while
discussing the distribution of plug-ins is the fact that the menus are
too crowded, and new users can easily get lost. The user interface is
indeed a significant problem, but I think that it should be handled
separately from the packaging issues.
Yup. How about we provide a user-friendly "Gimp Themes" (don't call it
that if you don't want to) feature
At install time the user can pick from whatever themes came with Gimp
and with any auxiliary plug-in packages or whatever
"Potato Shop convert"
"Expert pixel hacker"
"Web wrangler"
"Just the basics"
"Ms Finger Paint"
Themes define the keyboard shortcuts (possible today) the menu layout
(probably not too hard) and the toolbox icons (maybe harder).
The "menu-path" built into a plug-in would become only a recommendation.
We might like to consider whether themes can be added together (which
would make it easier for 3rd parties) or not.
This would be nice to have, but I think that it would be too
ambitious. What I had in mind is something simpler. Basically,
hiding the menus that are seldom used by unexperienced users. The
toolbox could also be made simpler, but this is not really necessary.
In any case, all plug-ins must be available (all plug-ins that are
installed) even if they are hidden in the menus. This will allow a
beginner to use a simple Script-Fu that invokes some plug-ins that are
temporarily hidden, for example. So my proposal was only affecting
what is shown in the menus, without affecting what is actually
available through the PDB or other means.
I do not think that the keyboard shortcuts should be changed because a
user who switches from the "beginner" view to the "expert" view (or
vice-versa) would be confused if any keyboard shortcuts behave
differently. The keyboard configuration is a separate issue from the
type of "view" that you want. We can of course distribute some
pre-configured keyboard templates for Gimp (default), PhotoShop, Paint
Shop Pro or compatibility with other applications, but this is
independent from how much you want to see in the Gimp menus.
Users would be able to edit all the features of the theme they're using,
and remove or change (nearly) everything put into the menus by the PDB
in Gimp 1.2, plus adding one-click toolbox icons for scripts, filters
etc. basically customising Gimp until it's almost unrecognisable.
Hmmm... I do now want the Gimp to become as bloated as Mozilla with
XUL. We do not need yet another theme engine in which the user can
spend hours making the application look like something totally
different.
What would we gain from that? Except for the coolness factor, not
much... It would even become more difficult for the users to follow a
Gimp tutorial because they would have a hard time finding where each
feature is located if they use a different theme than the one that was
used for the tutorial.
-Raphael
