[Scribus] Usability needs attention -- time for a feature moratorium?

[Craig Bradney]

On Sunday 27 January 2008 08:25:51 Hedley Finger wrote:
> As a complete newcomer to Scribus, my expectations from working on
> Macintosh (OS 9 for 6 years, OS X for 3), Windows, HP-UX with Motif,
> Sun OpenLook, etc. with PageMaker, Illustrator, FrameMaker (three
> platforms), various word processors, vector graphics apps, etc. are
> frequently not met.  I am amazed how often seemingly commonplace
> actions break with well-established precedents.
>
> For example, you cannot copy from the layout and paste into the
> Scrapbook but must right-drag.  (When was the first Macintosh released?)
>
> If you do something in a palette or dialogue which changes an object,
> you would think that Ctrl-z would restore the previous state but more
> often than not, the key event is not trapped by the palette/dialogue
> with focus but goes through to the layout/canvas/window where it
> undoes some OTHER state.  I keep getting this all the time and am
> beginning to think that Scribus is a secret cult where you have to
> remember what you can do or not do in various contexts in order to be
> accepted into the brotherhood.  Sadly, it will be a long time before
> this novice becomes and acolyte!
>
> The serious point I am trying to make is that perhaps it is time for
> a moratorium on feature building for a point release or two while
> usability issues are addressed, especially implementing orthogonality
> across objects and controls.
>
> Are there any other rank newbies who want to tell of their
> experiences/opinions?
>
> (It is the end of a long and tiring day ...)

Hi Hedley,

The Scribus stable version is almost up to its 12th point release, ie, we are 
working on 1.3.3.12.. No major features are going into 1.3.3.x. 

All new work is going into 1.3.5, and some of the issues we face with 1.3.3.x 
can and will only be fixed with Qt4 and the versions developed with that 
toolkit.

Craig