open blank document on 'close'

[Bug Importer]

As there is a 'quit' voice in the file menu,
maybe it's better to don't quit inkscape clicking on
the 'close'
entry (in that menu), but just open a new blank document

[Buliabyak-users (buliabyak-users)]

Disagree. This is entirely contrary to our document-centric
philosophy. This would only work if we had a single parent
window to which all documents would be children. Instead,
all document windows are independent, and when you close
them, they are closed - if necessary along with the program
itself.

[Hedley Finger (hfinger)]

This is an annoying usability issue on all platforms. I always try to keep a "new" Inkscape document minimized on the task bar so that when I close a working document, there is still an instance of the Inkscape app open. I then have to remember to click the "new document" icon on the toolbar to open another document. When I forget and immediately start a new project in the blank document, and then close that document and Inkscape with it, the curses can be heard several kilometres away. This usability issue has nothing to do with a document-centric philosophy. You can either have multiple child document windows like many other apps on Windows, Linux, OSX, etc. or just do what Notepad++ does -- immediately open a new blank document to keep the app running.
If I really want to exit Inkscape I will use the File > Quit menu option. It seems to fly in the face of accepted GUI design to have two different menu options (Close and Quit) on the same File menu which do the same thing in the particular case when there is only one document open. I want Close to just close the current document, asking me whether I want to save if necessary, and then for Inkscape to do whatever it has to to keep running.

[Hedley Finger (hfinger)]

Can this issue be retagged or renamed, please, preferably merging the other similar RFEs I found below? I had a hell of a time finding this bug and I'm sure that this behaviour irks everybody who uses Inkscape and is experienced with the majority of other apps on ALL platforms that do not do this when the last document is closed. Close should just close documents and Quit should just kill Inkscape and all open documents, with the usual opportunities to save unsaved work, etc. Suggested titles: "Quit should just close all Inkscape documents and kill the running app", or "Close should only close documents, not quit Inkscape when only one document open". Tags could be "document", "last document", "single document", "close document", "quit Inkscape".

Affects 0.46 and earlier. See also similar RFEs: #171935, "OSX Don't close the application when closing Inkscape window"; #171596. "Reorganize UI when closing document [MDI]"; #170803, "Close document vs. Quit program".

[Hedley Finger (hfinger)]

This should have a changed importance of Wishlist, along with #170550, #171596, #171935, and #170803.

[prkos (prkos)]

there's a lengthy survey result about the topic in a duplicate bug 230587

[Wolf (drechsel)]

On a Mac, it's very clear: Mac applications dont close, when the last document window is closed. Never. Period. (-;

[Spokane Dude (rmmarsh)]

Yes, but a Mac and a PC are different, and should be treated as such. I also find it very annoying that "close" ends the program... how about an option, yes or no?

[Hedley Finger (hfinger)]

"Yes, but a Mac and a PC are different, and should be treated as such."

I don't see the relevance of this to closing a document v. quitting (exiting, stopping) an application program. Most programs on Ubuntu, Macintosh, and Windows understand close applies to documents and quit to the program. So whatever other differences the OSs have, this is not one of them.

[a.l.e (ale-comp-06)]

i expect from small tools to quit when closing the window... but not from any "real" application.

and i hope that the "document centric" argument is not *the* reason why this has not been implemented, yet

there is already a quit command which breaks it (would you mind removing it, then?) and the tools default behaviors can only be set in the inkscape preferences (they should at least be shadowed in the document preferences if inkscape was really document centric...).

i guess that this issues would be better filled under the usability issues than clutter the wishlist...

[pbhj (pbhj)]

Just adding my vote for close being relevant to the document and not the application - annoys me more and more as I use Inkscape more and more.

Seems that a hacky fix would be quite easy to implement - just have the menu/key-combo spawn a new doc before it closes the old one.

That seems a lot more document-centric to me also. FWIW The GIMP and Scribus do it this way, closing last doc doesn't quit the app, it just closes the doc (but then they have a container window of sorts). Krita similarly returns one to the initial "open document" dialog on close.

[PhiLho (philho)]

One more voice. Lot of applications (on Windows at least) has Ctrl+Q to quit (or Alt+F4), Ctrl+W to close current document (or Ctrl+F4).

The MS Office Word 2003 application I use at work is document centric, opening an annoying additional windows for each document I open (I find this cluttering the task bar, but that's another debate). I have the same behavior with Gimp 2.6.
In both applications (and a number of others I know), if I close the last opened document, it shows either a blank / empty document, or a blank interface, waiting for the New document command.

I was sufficiently annoying to see (yet another time...) Inkscape to close when I hit Ctrl+W to close the current (only) document to search if there was a cure (and found this bug instead).

[gxlmamwqA1 (gxlmamwq)]

One more vote for close should not kill Inkscape on last document.

I can't believe we're in Jan/2012 and this is still being debated.
This is very annoying!!

[John Smith (john-smithi)]

Patch to open a new document when the last document is closed.
New document should be the "default" template - same as File->New-?Default.

[ScislaC (scislac)]

On close, when the new document is opened it keeps all the previous viewport settings instead of using the defaults as it does when you cleanly open Inkscape.

[John Smith (john-smithi)]

This patch should restore the default window position and viewport settings, the same as a File->New->Default action does.

[ScislaC (scislac)]

It's a rockin (as expected)! I vote commit.

[John Smith (john-smithi)]

Trunk commit r11632.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

John Smith wrote:
>> This patch should restore the default window position and
>> viewport settings, the same as a File->New->Default action does.
> Trunk commit r11632.

JFTR - doesn't fully work with GTK3 yet (will file a separate report for this): newly opened default document doesn't restore window position/size (instead keeps the one from last opened file). The viewport settings (zoom level) are restored from the default template.

[ScislaC (scislac)]

Is there a lot of utility in restoring window position/size? For example, if I have a window maximized, it would be jarring to have it resized as I probably want to work fullscreen. If I'm doing work and have windows positioned side by side, it seems like it could be jarring there too. (BTW, it doesn't mess with the window stuff here on gtk2, and I like that)

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> (BTW, it doesn't mess with the window stuff here on gtk2, and I like that)

What setting do you use for 'Inkscape preferences > Interface > Windows > Saving Window geometry (size & position)'?

If I intentionally use the third option there, yes, I want the new file open with the size and position I chose for my default (custom) template - else I'd switch to the second option.

(Note: my comment only refers to GTK3 which behaves differently from GTK2 with the same preferences to save & restore window geometry & position for each document).

[su_v (suv-lp)]

> (Note: my comment only refers to GTK3 which behaves differently from GTK2 with the
> same preferences to save & restore window geometry & position for each document).

*blush* - this actually was PEBKAC (turned out that I messed up the templates files used for the different builds, or rather the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME paths in the bash aliases used to launch them).

My mistake - please ignore comment #18, it is invalid.

[su_v (suv-lp)]

@JazzyNico - could you target the related blueprint <https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/close-document> to the 0.49 milestone (or otherwise close it)? I don't have permissions to do so.

[jazzynico (jazzynico)]

> @JazzyNico - could you target the related blueprint

Done.
I guess you need to be in the inkscape administrators group to have access to that kind of field.

[Samus Aran (y-launchpad-atu-cjb-net)]

Glad to see this being fixed, it is definitely a major usability issue. People expect Close to apply to a document and Quit to apply to the program. When a program supports multiple documents, "Close Document" should never "Quit Program".

[pbhj (pbhj)]

Yay, just installed inkscape-trunk (Inkscape 0.48+devel r (Jan 22 2013)) from the launchpad PPA and is all working as expected. Thanks - you guys rock.

IIRC it was in the stable version I was using already (Inkscape 0.48.3.1 r9886) too.

(KDE - Platform Version 4.9.3; Kubuntu 12.10)

[su_v (suv-lp)]

<off-topic>
pbhj wrote:
> IIRC it was in the stable version I was using already (Inkscape 0.48.3.1 r9886) too.

No - this new feature has not and will not be backported to the stable 0.48.x release branch (only bug fixes are backported). It is available in current development snapshot builds, and will be part of the next major release (0.49).
</off-topic>