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Show HN: Graphite, a Blender-inspired 2D procedural design Rust app

(graphite.rs)
783 points Keavon | 4 comments | 15 Oct 24 22:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.875s | source

For the past three years I've been building what I hope will be the next Blender, tackling the lack of any good 2D design or image editing tools outside the Adobe monopoly. This was our first year participating in Google Summer of Code and this Q3 update includes the big payoff from that, covering the most progress we've made so far as a project. If you're a Rust dev, consider getting involved as we apply for the next GSoC in the new year— you could be our intern next summer :)

Q3 progress report: https://graphite.rs/blog/graphite-progress-report-q3-2024/

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deskr ◴[16 Oct 24 13:24 UTC] No.41858793[source]▶
Some suggestions: I was doing something and then suddently I got a red error message, "The document cannot be rendered in it current state", instructing me to click the Node Graph button.

1. I couldn't find that button. Perhaps show a picture of it or just embed it in the error message.

2. Make the error text selectable.

3. Let me report the bug straight from the app?

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Keavon ◴[17 Oct 24 00:59 UTC] No.41865418[source]▶
Thanks for the feedback. What you've encountered is a type error— basically a programming language's compiler telling you that your code is invalid. It's not a bug per-se, although sometimes it is caused by our nodes not being as general as they should be. We just fixed an issue where the Stroke and Fill nodes only applied to vector data but didn't apply to group data (where the group contained one or more vector data). Those kinds of problems, when sensible, should probably get issues filed against them.

The red error message does tell you where to look:

> Check for error details in the node graph, which can be > opened with the viewport's top right _Node Graph_ button.

So in the top right of the viewport, and it's the button labeled "Node Graph". Is it possible your window was very small and the button got scrolled out of the way by other buttons? I'm open to feedback about how you may suggest improving the text of that message. It would currently be hard to make that dialog more visual or interactive, unfortunately, but that'll be something worth building towards improving in the future with improved diagonstics all around.

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1. deskr ◴[17 Oct 24 15:57 UTC] No.41870855[source]▶
I'd suggest allowing bug reports directly from the app. You can capture highly useful context with the report. You have highly technical people here eager to help your wonderful creation!
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2. Keavon ◴[17 Oct 24 19:56 UTC] No.41873166[source]▶
We have this for crash reports. Perhaps that's a good idea to add a menu button for reporting other bugs. Do you have suggestions as to how to make that discoverable?
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3. deskr ◴[17 Oct 24 22:43 UTC] No.41874567[source]▶
1. When this red error message is displayed, I'd have loved to see a "report this bug/issue/incident" next to it. That button would have opened a dialog box for me to write in, and telling that the context would be shipped with my bug report.

To me it looked like a crash, but I do understand that programmatically it wasn't a "crash" or an unhandled exception.

2. Since this is a pre-alpha/alpha/beta version, there's nothing wrong with a green button with a picture of a bug anywhere in the interface. Just open a dialog explaining that although horrified, you'll be thrilled to learn of any bugs.

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4. Keavon ◴[18 Oct 24 08:51 UTC] No.41877520{3}[source]▶
Ah yes, you made me realize we could check if the node graph isn't open and tell the user to report a bug in that situation, which must have arisen from a tool or other WYSIWYG aspect of the program causing a node graph error. But we wouldn't show it if it arose from the user just noodling around with the nodes. That's a good idea that'll be worth us implementing, thank you for the suggestion.