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  • 2 weeks later...
On 5/9/2022 at 4:01 AM, TonyB said:

Affinity will support Javascript and also have a 'C' based API binding interface that people can use to write plugins.

Please consider making sure that the C-based API has the ability to plug additional scripting languages into the environment, so that those of us who hate JavaScript and its ilk could potentially create and use 3rd-party scripting language plugins.

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I just ran across this video on creating a simple script in Cavalry and I'm impressed by how easy it is to build and test scripts from within the app itself. Cavalry is helped somewhat as the entire application is based around parametric design so accessing various object attributes and paths is built-in to the UI, but the immediate feedback (ie: run this script) is a very nice touch.

I'm sure Serif already have many ideas as to how scripting will fit into their applications, but I'm sharing this as I think it's an interesting example of how scripting support (and the underlying API) could work within modern design applications.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
On 5/9/2022 at 10:01 AM, TonyB said:

Affinity will support Javascript and also have a 'C' based API binding interface that people can use to write plugins. We will also have the ability to create UI to support their scripts and plugins with dialogs and panels. 

We have a team developing this but the amount of work is very large so unfortunately users will need to be patient.

Why was the decision made to support Javascript and not Python? I know Adobe uses Java, yet Blender, Krita, 3ds Max, Rhino, Revit, etc. all support Python. In the software I use, Python is the common denominator and Java isn't even used. Just wondering here.

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1 hour ago, Intuos5 said:

Why was the decision made to support Javascript and not Python? I know Adobe uses Java, yet Blender, Krita, 3ds Max, Rhino, Revit, etc. all support Python. In the software I use, Python is the common denominator and Java isn't even used. Just wondering here.

They chose what they believed was most suitable.

As Adobe and Quark use Javascript - and as they're the closest competitors -  it makes sense to have a language with which potential users would be familiar.  I doubt they care what Blender etc use as they're not the users they're trying to attract.

In all the software I use none uses Python, but many support javascript and/or applescript.

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1 hour ago, kimtorch said:

They chose what they believed was most suitable.

As Adobe and Quark use Javascript - and as they're the closest competitors -  it makes sense to have a language with which potential users would be familiar.  I doubt they care what Blender etc use as they're not the users they're trying to attract.

I think this is a valid notion. I’m not 100% sure, however, which kind of user Serif/Affinity are really targeting as of now: do they really (still) want to lure professional InDesign (and – as market shares come into it – to a lesser extent Quark) "power users" – preferably in the print design area – away from their industry standard apps which they have maybe been dealing with for decades? Then it makes perfect sense to go for a script language these users may well have some experience with.

If these users are being targeted (more than before) now or in the future the developers should, howver, certainly address several issues (which I won't repeat here) in the Affinity apps that have been requested time and time again over the last years. Scripting is just one of them.

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On 5/9/2022 at 9:01 AM, TonyB said:

Affinity will support Javascript and also have a 'C' based API binding interface that people can use to write plugins. We will also have the ability to create UI to support their scripts and plugins with dialogs and panels.

I wish to see a Roadmap for your development with some approximation of deliverable dates. These can be as general as "late 2023", etc. But the lack of a roadmap makes and planning / recommendations impossible. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/14/2022 at 3:12 PM, rparmar said:

I wish to see a Roadmap for your development with some approximation of deliverable dates. These can be as general as "late 2023", etc. But the lack of a roadmap makes and planning / recommendations impossible. 

Seconded, rough roadmap and an estimated target feature list would be great. We could plan out testing and implementation in the pipeline.

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On 5/25/2022 at 3:43 PM, fde101 said:

Please consider making sure that the C-based API has the ability to plug additional scripting languages into the environment, so that those of us who hate JavaScript and its ilk could potentially create and use 3rd-party scripting language plugins.

This decision will be a game-changer for affinity for a close competition with Indesign

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On 9/13/2022 at 4:36 PM, Lorox said:

which kind of user Serif/Affinity are really targeting as of now: do they really (still) want to lure professional InDesign (and – as market shares come into it – to a lesser extent Quark) "power users" – preferably in the print design area – away from their industry standard apps which they have maybe been dealing with for decades?

The job market has changed a lot, since when InDesign was first announced. At the time, most people worked inside companies, that paid the software for them.

Now, freelancing is more common. Designers and writers own their own software (or subscription). Sometimes they can't even deduct the expense for it, being on a flat-rate taxation system.

The Affinity suite is therefore not just targeted to a semi-pro market, but there is a strong need for it in the pro market. Paradoxically, the most recent Adobe ads are targeting an amateur market, probably the one whose software is paid by their school institution.

Paolo

 

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1 hour ago, PaoloT said:

The job market has changed a lot, since when InDesign was first announced. At the time, most people worked inside companies, that paid the software for them.

Now, freelancing is more common. Designers and writers own their own software (or subscription). Sometimes they can't even deduct the expense for it, being on a flat-rate taxation system.

The Affinity suite is therefore not just targeted to a semi-pro market, but there is a strong need for it in the pro market. Paradoxically, the most recent Adobe ads are targeting an amateur market, probably the one whose software is paid by their school institution.

Paolo

 

Interesting point(s), Paolo! I tend to agree, actually and it seems to support my notion that the Affinity apps should indeed put a strong(er) focus on "professional" features, which will help secure a smooth and hassle-free production process  – like e.g. really foolproof colour management and (accordingly) error free PDF output.

I have the impression that it is still way too easy to produce productionwise faulty PDFs using Publisher while in InDesign it used to be almost foolproof once you had set up your Creative Suite apps correctly once and for all in the initial setup (especially concerning colour spaces and profiles).

Furthermore I tend to think that Adobe’s offering the possibility to entend/complement inbuilt features on quite a grand scale by helpful and powerful 3rd party plugins and scripts in Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign has really created some serious creative atmosphere or ecosystem around the apps, which had made them all the more attractive to all creative users. In my opinion you cannot for example underestimate the positive effects which some 3rd party plugins (or plugins collections) have had for the attractivity of PhotoShop to creatives over the years: KPT (back in the day), Alien Skin, Mr. Retro and many others. Or – e.g. – those by Astute Graphics for Illustrator.

Having used some of these to my benefit back in the day and having learned about many others which I might have tried some day I can't help but feeling more than a bit limited every now and then after having switched to Affinity a couple of years ago...

Last but not least: of course Adobe will try to make students and amateurs sort of dependent on their software, which – as you say correctly – they will have often learned to use in school or other education and have been able then to subscribe to at drastically reduced educational discounts. Many of them will obviously be hesitant to learn yet another software after having learned to feel sort of at home in CC. it  If you want to make someone addicted that's the way to go I'd say...

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  • 3 weeks later...
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7 minutes ago, nicolasbulb said:

Well version 2 is here, and so far, I can't see any scripting abilities… Am I missing something?

There isn't any scripting support in V2 yet. We have a dedicated scripting team here typing very quickly but still no definite timeline for release yet. 

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D'oh been using V1 for a few years now on my personal machine because I love the product.  Unfortunately my employer needs to use "other" products simply because we do tons of programmic post processing (translation, mass conversion to different file output ... ect)  looking forward to buying V2 when scripting is implemented.

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On 11/9/2022 at 9:46 AM, TonyB said:

There isn't any scripting support in V2 yet. We have a dedicated scripting team here typing very quickly but still no definite timeline for release yet. 

I hope you are considering WASM / modern javascript support.  That would give you an edge over competition and WASM would be future proofing allowing support for any language with high performance.

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35 minutes ago, karipu said:

Lat’s pray for AppleScript!

  1. To whom? The goddess Serifia? :D 
  2. While you're praying, don't hold your breath for more that a few seconds if you want to experience it during your lifetime. ;) 
    Given Serif's obvious goal for cross-platform unification, AppleScript will likely be very low down on the list of potential candidates. Sad but very likely true. My bet is on JavaScript, which is, by the way, already supported by Apple's ScriptEditor app.

MacBookAir 15": MacOS Ventura > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // MacBookPro 15" mid-2012: MacOS El Capitan > Affinity v1 / MacOS Catalina > Affinity v1, v2, v2 beta // iPad 8th: iPadOS 16 > Affinity v2

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  • 2 weeks later...

Happy to read this and happy with both JavaScript and C, I reckon both are great choices. I understand that you do't have any specific timelines yet, but as requested before, could you please give us a vague reference like Q2 2023 or something like that? Or is there maybe any rough alpha that people can start testing to get feedback, making it clear that it's not production ready? Thanks you in advance

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  • 2 weeks later...

Blender is future, 2d graphics design and 3d are both cg, there is no boundary between them. I'm the developer of the Blender plugin, and I would lose a lot of interest if I didn't support python, And you seem to forget how many AI open source libraries are based on python, it would be foolish to learn from adobe to stand still. How do you bring unlimited creative freedom to your users, how do you link data between 2d and 3d, how do you remove the boundaries of design that's what you should be thinking about, not how do you compete with Adobe

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101, if we are talking about script support for Affinity Publisher in javascript there are tons of things people need to do on the industry side of things. E.g. batch processing of files/folders and documents, document cleanup, script enhanced search and replace, multiple formats export, automated flightchecks... even on the creative/document creation side there are tons of things that can be done which don't require plugins or full fledged programming language/compiled packages.

I am sure people will want to link AI into this as well, but for most of the industry side it is not needed or wanted. Printing processes are very specialised, most of them are connected to specific printer types and/or RIPs, and we don't need or want a randomly creative AI to muck things up at that level.

WASM compliancy sounds like a good idea to me, just as long as standalone scripts are still allowed. Which is kinda the whole idea with scripting support.

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On 12/17/2022 at 1:53 AM, 101 said:

Blender is future, 2d graphics design and 3d are both cg, there is no boundary between them. I'm the developer of the Blender plugin, and I would lose a lot of interest if I didn't support python, And you seem to forget how many AI open source libraries are based on python, it would be foolish to learn from adobe to stand still. How do you bring unlimited creative freedom to your users, how do you link data between 2d and 3d, how do you remove the boundaries of design that's what you should be thinking about, not how do you compete with Adobe

I have zero interest in Blender or 3D. I do have massive interest in being able to script the majority of functions of the existing app so I can automate tasks I need today. I'm bemused by the number of comments in this thread saying "do this" or "use that" and it appears they've never actually used or scripted InDesign or Quark.

I'm all for expanding the capabilities going forward but right now I'd settle for being able to create an object and place some text in it. Publisher is a print program first and foremost so the scripting functionality needs to focus on ink on paper - everything else is speculative detritus. As Adobe has the market Affinity wants, it makes perfect sense to compete in that market. I suspect if they wanted the Blender market they'd create a Blender alternative.

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