Comment 8 for bug 187458

Well, there was some talk just today on inkscape-devel about making
tools 'pluggable', so maybe that day will come soon. I'm with you that
the toolbar needs to remain as uncluttered as possible--though perhaps
something like 'wave' could be part of a shapes submenu with spiral
and star, like some other tools have.

I have to admit that apart from some fairly arbitrary UI conventions
(tools live in the toolbar and have a command menubar; LPEs live in
the path effects dialog and have their parameters set there), the
distinction between the two from the user's point of view is not
totally clear to me. This distinction would seem to become even more
blurred as the features you discuss (controlling parameters with node
handles) get added.

For instance, I could imagine a 'star' LPE, that would look a lot like
the current star tool. Also, if there were a 'wave' LPE, it would also
be nice to have a companion tool that draws a line between two points
and applies the LPE to it.

Sorry to get so OT. Your comments have been very helpful for me to get
to understand this a little better.

On Jan 31, 2008 3:33 PM, ScislaC <email address hidden> wrote:
> Tom,
>
> The best thing about live path effects is the involved paths can be
> edited on-canvas with the node tool. So, adding the ability to visualize
> handles on-canvas for LPE parameters as well would be just another
> usability step forward with it. The star and spiral tools are not lpes
> internally. However, they're shapes that people more commonly need
> (which is why the tools make more sense). The best part about if the
> Wiggly/Wave function was a Live Path Effect is that you could apply it
> to those shapes as well too. :)
>
> I will agree that LPEs are currently a more "advanced" function.
> However, I think with a little more usability work and making it more
> visible and documenting it all well... it will be something the average
> user will utilize a lot too. The few friends of mine that I've shown how
> they work were blown away with not only how powerful they are, but how
> easy they are to use too.
>
> I'll be honest that at this point, we're getting pretty loaded on full-
> on tools. So, unless someone wants to tackle making our toolbox much
> more flexible and resizable, I'm not sure that people would be so open
> to this being a dedicated tool.
>
>
> --
> Wiggly / Wave LPE
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/187458
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> Bug Team, which is the bug contact for Inkscape.
>