Re: Making Emacs more friendly to newcomers

[ndame]

>
> Since you read the article, could you tell us in which year Blender
> changed interfaces?

In version 2.80 in 2019.


The relevant part:


A game-changing release

When Roosendaal first proposed Blender 2.80 in 2015, it was as a “workflow 
release” – a chance to stop focusing on new features for a while in favour of 
bigger structural goals. At the time, he thought the work might take “9-12 
months”. It turned out it would take three years longer.

But those extra years would buy the Blender Foundation time to address some of 
the real drawbacks in the software: issues that prevented artists used to 
commercial 3D applications from switching over to Blender. The biggest was the 
user interface. Before 2.80, diehard Blender users – including many

Blender developers – would defend the software’s defiantly idiosyncratic UI on 
the grounds that ‘different doesn’t always mean worse’. Blender could do 
everything that other 3D packages could, they argued, and given a little time, 
it was possible to adapt your old working methods to a new combination of 
icons, keyboard shortcuts and menu commands.

But for artists working in visual effects or game development – notoriously 
high-pressure industries, particularly when deadlines are looming – time is at 
a premium. Many people who might otherwise have loved Blender got no further 
than its splash screen. Some of the changes made in Blender 2.80 were cosmetic: 
the interface has a more industry-standard dark grey colour scheme, designed to 
prevent it from drawing the user’s eye away from the 3D scene on display in the 
viewport. Others struck at the heart of

Blender veterans’ sense of identity and even their muscle memory. In almost 
every other 3D application, you leftclick to select things. In Blender, prior 
to 2.80, you rightclicked by default. Supporters argued that it made for a 
faster, more precise workflow – but it was also alien to artists coming to 
Blender from other software.

Other changes were intended specifically to help artists make that transition. 
A toggleable ‘keymap’ switched Blender’s keyboard shortcuts from their 
traditional settings to ones more familiar to users of other 3D applications: 
tools like Pixologic’s Zbrush, used for sculpting organic characters, 
Autodesk’s Maya, used for general-purpose modelling and animation, and Sidefx’s 
Houdini, used for creating physically based effects like fire, water and smoke.