OT: How I hate Adobe, let me count the ways (was Re: [OS X TeX] OT: log from Acrobat 7.0)

[Jens Noeckel]

On Jul 24, 2006, at 10:18 AM, William Adams wrote:

> On Jul 24, 2006, at 11:01 AM, George Gratzer wrote:
>
>> Why is there so much hostility to Adobe? I consider Illustrator the
>> best software I have ever used, except for Photoshop. Az an
>> academic, I buy them really cheaply, and they provide the best user
>> interface I have ever seen.
>
> Apparently you've never used Freehand or Altsys Virtuoso? AI's
> interface is so needlessly Byzantine in its intricacies and special
> cases that it can be tortuous to use if one is accustomed to a
> program which works in a sensible fashion. I'm posting a description
> below this message of a set of tasks which I need to accomplish for a
> large set of graphics on a regular basis --- some of them are really
> difficult in Adobe Illustrator, others can't be accomplished in a
> single step and require extensive user intervention and effort).
>
> More reasons to dislike Adobe:
> <snip>

> I could go on, but instead will segue to this set of steps which're
> trivial, quick and efficient in Macromedia Freehand or Altsys
> Virtuoso, but painful and tedious in the extreme in Adobe
> Illustrator. The things which aren't working well or don't seem to
> have direct equivelants are starred:
<snip>

I'd like to add some complaints and then atone for it right away:

(a)
I've only bought Acrobat once for OS X, and never use it any more  
because its purported productivity enhancements only really work if  
the people you collaborate with have Acrobat (full version) too.  
That's not a very scalable way to enhance productivity.

(b)
With the switch to Intel processors, I find it insulting to have to  
use products I depend on (like Illustrator) through *Rosetta*.

(c)
Regarding William's earlier email: I didn't completely understand the  
list of tasks you listed in the previous message, but I have a  
feeling that it's not as bad in Illustrator. Maybe for those who need  
to use Illustrator, the following link with keyboard shortcuts could  
be helpful:

http://www.nobledesktop.com/shortcuts-illustratorcs2-mac.html

(look for the zoom shortcuts, e.g.)
I find I can be very fast and productive with Illustrator (after it  
has started up under Rosetta..............). Finally: Illustrator is  
still my first choice for SVG export. It's extremely important in my  
opinion that you can get complete control over almost anything in  
Illustrator using Javascript. That's Javascript, NOT Applescript,  
mark you! To me, that's still worth paying for.

Jens

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