Vector/Shape Selection

[Boudewijn Rempt]

On Monday 11 June 2007, Sven Langkamp wrote:

> Boud and Thomas criticised that too many shape could get overwhelming
> and confuse the user. The proposed solutions for this were
> auto-merging shapes and grouping of shape.

Well, not exactly: what I think is confusing is the interaction between shape 
layers and shape selections -- I'm not sure we've got that properly working. 
But it's worth it to experiment with. Also, code-wise we've got our third 
KoCanvasBase implementation now, if I am seeing it correctly. Not sure 
whether that's a big problem, but it is a bit complicated.

Next point is the layerbox: I'm still working to make the masks and selections 
of layers and the selction of the image appear in the layerbox, as well as 
the shapes in a shape layer. But since I'm in brussels and am even more tired 
out in the evenings than I thought, there's not much progress.

> Auto-merging has advantage that it can be done automatically without
> user interaction, while grouping has to be done by the user.

For now, so we can experiment with what works best, maybe add a preference 
setting.

> So what should be used?
>
> Some other questions:
> Should the shape selection use KoPathShape only or should it be
> possible to use e.g. rectangle (for rounded corners) and circle
> shapes?

Yes, well, if you go shape, it's a good idea to go full-blown shape. Because 
there's no reason why people wouldn't want to select using text or with 
gradients.

> Should the shapes be in the global shape manger (which is at the
> moment layers only)?

I don't see the value in that: the shape manager belongs to a canvas, which 
means only the shapes you show on that canvas should be in the shape manager. 
And for selections we've got a new canvas -- iirc?

> Should the shapes be visible inside the layerbox?

Yes.

> Another idea: Is it usefull to have add and subtract shapes?

Oh dear... That sounds like a can of worms. It would be useful, not just add 
and subtract, but also xor. I guess that can be done using the Qt composition 
modes (see qpainter docs), but it should be a flake feature -- i.e, we need 
to add composition mode to flake shapes and then it works automatically.

> I hope it's clearer now.

Cool work!


-- 
Boudewijn Rempt 
http://www.valdyas.org/fading/index.cgi
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