[scribus-dev] Scribus review in Linux-Magazin

[Louis Desjardins]

2008/7/17 "Christoph Schäfer" <christoph-schaefer at gmx.de>:

> Hi guys,


Hi,

>
>
> The German Linux-Magazin has published a comparison between Scribus
> 1.3.5svn and QXP/ID in its current issue (8/2008, pp. 68-70). Unfortunately
> the result was more or less devastating.


Of course, it depends mostly on the angle you are looking at those apps.
Clearly, by what you point out to be the most important criticisms, we are
in the field of the look and feel. The aesthetic. I cannot say I am
impressed by these criticisms. More below.


> While some points of the author are questionable, I think most of his
> criticism has to be taken seriously.
>
> Here is what the author (Peter Kreußel) criticised:
>
> - The Properties Palette isn't dockable (agreed).


Why not! We're going to need that, someday. But this is not a showstopper.
It should be actually low in the priority list, considering lots of other
*critical* issues... (I think I mentionned that a bit after LGM...)

>
>
> - The Properties Palette is too big (I agree. This has become a huge
> problem with Qt4, as it takes about 50% of the screen now. This isn't
> acceptable!).


Not a showstopper. Not a big deal.

>
>
> - There's no way to tear off PP tabs and leave them open while the rest of
> the PP is hidden (Pierre and Franz seem to work on this issue).


More or less the same issue as docking.

>
>
> - The Zoom tool is too primitive, and it remains active after zooming. It
> should be automatically deactivated after a zoom. Here's a new idea derived
> from my reading of the article: How about allowing the user to activate the
> magnifier and then let him drag a rubber band around the area he wishes to
> enlarge on screen?


The Zoom is used in all sorts of situations and very often. Anything that
can improve zooming and dezooming will be a welcome addition.

>
>
> - The next point of criticism was that Scribus doesn't support diagonal
> guides. While it is telling that Mr. Keußling didn't compare Scribus to
> InDesign or QXP here and used Inkscape instead, I have to admit that these
> guides (among many others) have already been requested by me in mail to
> MrGuides (aka subik).


I am not aware that ID and QXP support diagonal guides either. Do they? At
least, for the past 20 years, QXP hasn't offered that. It's clearly
something for drawing tools, such as Inkscape and Illustrator. The reporter
is missing the point here, too.

>
>
> - The next complaint is related to object selection, which doesn't seem to
> be valid, given the improvements to the outline dialog
>
> - Another complaint is still valuable: The choice between scaling and
> moving and item is still a game of chance. This has to be improved as soon
> as possible. I know from experience that this a real showstopper, because
> people are really wasting a lot of time with this unpredictable behaviour.


? ? ? ? I see no showstopper here.

What we're going to need someday is a way to control the scaling (of a
group, for instance), either in absolute values or in percentage,
proportionnal or not.

>
>
> - No object styles. This should really become one of the primary
> development goals after 1.4!


Will be nice, as mentionned on the bugtracker for years now. (Scribus is
still ahead with the linestyle...)

>
>
> - No text variables, except page numbers (and number of pages).


Word processing goodies.


>
>
> - No editable items on master pages. This was one of the major complaints.
> I'm working on a user-side suggestion for the solution of the issue, which,
> I think, will be much better than QXP's and ID's ways.


The reporter should read the mailing list more often. We have discussed that
thouroughly, didn't we? and I for one don't think we are really in a
twilight zone with the actual Scribus way. But I agree there will always be
people complaining about things they can't find where they think it should
be. In the meantime, he could have mentionned that a simple duplication of a
page (containing all the empty elements he wants to further edit, needless
to say) can probably solve 90% of all issues related to the so-called "no
editable items on master pages". He could also use the Scrapbook for even
more "workability"... Maybe a bit more experience in DTP could help, here.

>
>
> - Finally: performance, performance, performance.


Devastating?!

Louis


>
>
> Regards
>
> Christoph
> --
> Psssst! Schon das coole Video vom GMX MultiMessenger gesehen?
> Der Eine für Alle: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/messenger03
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.scribus.net/pipermail/scribus-dev/attachments/20080717/b9ce5a45/attachment.html>