[scribus] Scribus 1.3.8 vs 1.3.3.13svn

[Gregory Pittman]

On 08/05/2010 08:52 AM, Murray Strome wrote:
> I have just finished installing Scribus 1.3.8 (Build ID: C-C-T-F-C1.8.10-64bit) in Kubuntu 10.04. It is very different from 1.3.3.13svn! I was wondering if there was some kind of simple comparison chart between the two versions to help me to find the familiar controls/buttons and to briefly describe some of the new features.
>
> A few things that I noticed immediately were:
> 1. If I open a document created with the older version, some of the text frames became too small to contain the text in them (I had to make them slightly larger).

This has happened more than once as new series of Scribus have been 
developed and released. It has to do with the particulars of how glyphs 
are handled inside of text frames, for example, how much space there is 
from the top of the frame to the bottom of the first line of glyphs.

> 2. The "Properties" windows are quite different and take a bit of exploring to figure out how to use them.

The number of new features has continued to expand, so the Properties 
palette is trying to cope with this expansion, yet try to remain 
intuitive. I think it can be better, but until someone can come up with 
a better layout (and lets face it, were limited by what Qt can do), 
we're better off not constantly fiddling with it.

> 3. The new version seems to be a lot faster! I haven't done enough to be certain of this, but that was my impression.
> 4. There seem to be quite a few more buttons at the top, and the icons for the usual ones look very different.
> 5. Once you get used to it, the rulers are better as they have more detail
>
> Thanks to the developers for all their hard work in creating and improving a great software tool!

There was a BBC TV series some years ago called "The Shock of the New" 
that was focused on the art world, and explained how time and again, 
when some new radical change came about, such as Impressionism, it was 
at first seen as barbaric, or some other kind of abomination, since it 
wasn't what people were used to, yet as time went on and as people got 
used to seeing it, gradually the newness wore off and it was appreciated 
as an advancement in how art portrays the world.

And so we see things develop in software, where new features, new ways 
of dealing with the user interface require a new container, and new ways 
of presenting the information. This is all experimentation, and it must 
survive some sort of test of usability.

While in Brussels for LGM I went to the Magritte Museum, where you can 
see the results of people doing things different for the sake of 
difference, some of which withstand the test of time, and others which 
in retrospect just seem silly.

Greg