[Gimp-developer] [wish] center on focused area on zoom out

[gg]

> > The effect of this (fixed point of zoom) is that the relation to mouse
> > when doing in&out is preserved.
> >
> > Jernej pointed out that PaintShopPro behaves like I wished for, so
> > they had a reason for this too.
> >
> >

I think this is the main point from a GUI design angle. The GUI should 
be consistant in it's action. Scroll-wheel zooming in and out is a great 
feature for the most part. The point at which the behaviour changes and 
it jumps to one side is mentally disrouting and breaks work flow.

It seems that there is an implicit assumption in the current behaviour 
that if the image can fit into the display window it absolutely must be 
centred.

It seems that this assumption needs to be re-examined. Is this always 
the best behaviour?

On opening an image it would seem a logical choice but on zooming out I 
would maintain that continuity of the mental focal point is the most 
important for usability and workflow.

In this context whether the user wishes to ALSO centre the image in the 
window is a secondary and largely separate issue. This can be achieved 
by a shrink wrap for example.

I'm glad this subject has come up because this is a constant annoyance 
when working close in on images. The initial zoom-in is generally a 
series of zoom-drag-zoom-drag.... operations.

There is no reason why subsequently re-zooming to the same work area 
should be equally laborious.

/gg