On Friday 17 November 2006 17:29, mETz wrote:
> Kurt Pfeifle schrieb:
> > On Friday 17 November 2006 14:19, mETz wrote:
> >
> >> I expect a viewer to _view_ (i.e. display) documents. Nothing more,
> >> nothing less.
> >
> > I agree....
> >
> >> Maybe allow copying text/images to clipboard but that's
> >> about it. If I want to crop/rotate/rearrange some document then I want
> >> to _edit_ it and not _view_ it (and for editing I use gimp, openoffice,
> >> kate and kile)
> >
> > Right. The problem is: none of the applications you mention can edit
> > *PDF* documents. And PDF is one of the core formats handled by these
> > applications we discuss in this threat.
> 
> I never had the need to either edit PS or PDF, I use them as plain
> output-formats (and I don't know anybody who edits those files either).
> If somebody needs a PDF-editor then one has to write a PDF-editor.
> Adding editing functions to a viewer because there is no editor
> available feels weird to me.
> 
> > If I'm currently using a _viewer_, _viewing_ a document, and now it
> > suddenly occurs to me (for whatever reason) that I may need to _edit_
> > it, I do not want to start a completely separate application, and
> > load that document again. I'd rather prefer to click on "edit", and
> > see how my viewer quickly loads its editing tools so I can use them
> > on the opened document....   [1]
> 
> But I don't want to wait for the viewer just because it also contains
> editing tools :)

*Sigh*

I didn't say you should. What I meant is to load additional 
functionality *on demand* (maybe as plugins).

[...]
> The problem I see here is that application-types start mixing which
> makes it harder for the user to know which application is the right one
> for a certain task.

I think one of the patterns that are shaping out for the future
of "applications" is that the "which is the right one for which 
task"-thinking is being overcome. [And KDE even started to do 
this, since long ago: think about KIO slaves, and think about 
the most complete & universally "integrated environment" (that is
KDE for technical geeks)... And as far as I understand, KOffice
is moving into that direction as well (Krita plugins, Flake, ...).