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

[Louis Desjardins]

Tornoci Laszlo a ?crit :
> JLuc wrote:
>> Hedley Finger a ?crit :
>>> 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?
>>
>> I strongly agree.
>> There seems to be a tremendous enthousiasm to develop
>> very precise high profile features
>> while basic usability is ... missing.
> 
> I strongly disagree :-)
> Seriously, user needs are very different, so every user has a different 
> priority of necessary features. I have already produced a book
> 
> http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Success_stories#172_page_ECG_workbook_for_medical_students
> 
> using scribus 1.2, so I think a have the authority to say, that scribus 
> is "basically usable". I am personally ready to work around the bugs in 
> scribus, as long as I can do what I want. For me the most important 
> feature missing is proper text hyphenation/justification. I strongly 
> disagree to a feature freeze that may hinder the development of a stable 
> version with good text justification.


As Avox has well explained earlier in this thread, we do need testers 
and users to provide their input in order to achieve a better Scribus. 
There are ways to make this contribution useful.

Also, we have a wiki entry where usability is discussed.

http://wiki.scribus.net/index.php/Discussion:_Scribus_UI/usability_improvements

I don't believe we need such a moratorium as in essence we do need new 
views on DTP, new approach, new features that have not been tried 
before, not efficiently developped or poorly implemented. And in fact, 
there is a moratorium every time we come close to a stable release. Then 
only bugs are fixed and no new features appear. Then, development is 
pursued, according to the roadmap, which is also enriched with users' 
experiences.

Once you get the right-click automatism in your fingers, the use of the 
scrapbook is not that clumsy, don't you think?
As for the undo feature, well, you're right pointing at it but again, I 
doubt this incomplete feature is a show-stopper.

Cheers!

Louis


> 
> 					Yours: Laszlo
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-- 
Louis Desjardins
Mardigrafe inc.
Graphisme et impression ?cologique
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