[Gchempaint-main] GChemPaint , usability, and projects for 0.8

[Jean Bréfort]

Hi,

GChemPaint-0.6.x and earlier have serious usability issues. 0.8.x should
be more HIG [1] compliant, easier to use, and bring in more flexibility.

To fulfill these goals, I'm currently developing a new user interface
with a separate tools window (different from what existed for 0.4 and
earlier) and one window for each opened document. I made screenshots of
the tools box when the selection tool [2] or the bond tool [3] is
selected (the second is more recent and have one more tool). When the
properties are changed, they are instantly applied.
This new interface will be available in 0.7.2 with the -n command line
option for testing, and might become the default interface for 0.8.0.

The various default values used for drawing, such as default bond
length, scale (how many pm/pixel), font used for atoms,... should be
modifiable by the user. Recently, when working on embedding GChemPaint
objects in Abiword, I found that the embedded model appeared too large
in the text (a personal opinion). I'm thinking that these parameters
might need different default values for different situations, so I'm
going to create profiles, so that each new file can be created with an
appropriate profile. Users will be able to create their own profiles. I
still do not know how I'll store that in the files.

The last important work to do before 0.8 is to get rid of the gnome
libraries. Hopefully, gtk+-2.10 will have most of what is needed. This
might help to port GChemPaint to other platforms (if somebody
volunteers).

May be you'll have other ideas, willings, or suggestions? Please, share
them on this list.

Best regards,
Jean


[1] http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/
[2] http://jean.brefort.free.fr/toolbox.png
[3] http://jean.brefort.free.fr/bondtool.png