11-24-2025, 04:34 PM
teapot: Thanks for the detailed information! I think I have a better understanding now.
Regarding "In fact auto-connect on click has made gimp less like inkscape rather than more as inkscape's node tool", I think that's where the tension lies. If you asked me what GIMP's Path Tool was most similar to in Inkscape, I'd actually say the Pen Tool. Both of those create new edges and vertices, while Inkscape's Node Tool only edits existing ones. That's probably why people coming from other software get confused - the Path Tool acts like other software's Pen Tool in many cases, except it doesn't auto-close when you click on the end node.
However, GIMP does show the intermediate nodes and you can move them even in "Design" mode, which does differ from other software's Pen Tools. My knee-jerk reaction is that since Ctrl switches to Edit mode, which maps more closely to Inkscape's Node Tool in that you're working on an existing path, setting Ctrl to move the endpoint would be an improvement over the current situation. But as we've seen, going with knee-jerk responses can cause problems.
Bruno is sometimes quick on the draw regarding closing issues, but that's because he tries to keep our issue tracker as clean as possible. He moved the issue to our UX tracker (Paths Tool, broken productivity (#760) · Issue · Teams/GIMP/Design/gimp-ux), but I think it didn't reopen automatically when he did. You could post your feedback there and it should restart the discussion.
Regarding "In fact auto-connect on click has made gimp less like inkscape rather than more as inkscape's node tool", I think that's where the tension lies. If you asked me what GIMP's Path Tool was most similar to in Inkscape, I'd actually say the Pen Tool. Both of those create new edges and vertices, while Inkscape's Node Tool only edits existing ones. That's probably why people coming from other software get confused - the Path Tool acts like other software's Pen Tool in many cases, except it doesn't auto-close when you click on the end node.
However, GIMP does show the intermediate nodes and you can move them even in "Design" mode, which does differ from other software's Pen Tools. My knee-jerk reaction is that since Ctrl switches to Edit mode, which maps more closely to Inkscape's Node Tool in that you're working on an existing path, setting Ctrl to move the endpoint would be an improvement over the current situation. But as we've seen, going with knee-jerk responses can cause problems.
Bruno is sometimes quick on the draw regarding closing issues, but that's because he tries to keep our issue tracker as clean as possible. He moved the issue to our UX tracker (Paths Tool, broken productivity (#760) · Issue · Teams/GIMP/Design/gimp-ux), but I think it didn't reopen automatically when he did. You could post your feedback there and it should restart the discussion.