Comment 6 for bug 1118663

thanks!

i always hate it when some difficult options don't explain themselves, so i always try to help the user as much as possible when i write a script.

for instance: in the original HPGL extension was an option "x-origin", i thought it was a offset function, but after analysing the code i found out it is used to move the paths into positive dimensions (within the document border), which also requires a negative input and is very confusing.
without this option a drawing could have produced negative values which would result into a corrupted HPGL drawing.
this was nearly impossible for a normal user to understand.

you are right, the compatibility is broken. i accepted this fact because most of the existing features didn't make sense or where difficult to understand.

- the orientation of most of the plotters is vertical to the long side of the plotter, so an orientation of 0° would plot vertical instead of horizontal like the drawing is shown in inkscape.
- the units: one would have to calculate the dimensions one want to use by convert mm (or whatever unit) to inch divided by dpi. i simply do this for the user internally.
- the original parameter was a "origin" instead of the "offset" it is now, so the functionality has changed completely and both features are not comparable.
- the relative coordinates: yes, this was a bit of a gamble, but i figured that most of the users just want to plot a drawing and don't care about the absolute position of the drawing. this could be a bit confusing for hardcore users (which are used to professional software), but it is a tremendous help for first time users. also this feature guarantees that the HPGL data is always in the positive range and the drawing is not too far away from the zero point so no foil is wasted.

do you mean a mailing list with the Inkscape users list? i really have no idea what the "normal" approach is for this request, maybe someone could help me here.

i thank you for your comments, only a critical view on the code and functionality can make a great product.