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List:       gimp-developer
Subject:    Re: [Gimp-developer] discussing the roadmap for 2.6
From:       saulgoode () flashingtwelve ! brickfilms ! com
Date:       2007-10-26 9:37:49
Message-ID: 20071026053749.2vuvowhfk0k4k8s0 () flashingtwelve ! brickfilms ! com
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Regarding the process of developing a roadmap, I think this mailing  
list should be where proposals are made and commented upon (there has  
already been some nice commentary in this thread). The "main" GIMP  
developers should fairly rapidly be able to come to a decision about  
the roadmap (through discussions on #gimp) and announce the main focal  
points of the plan. While it is difficult to dictate the direction of  
volunteers, with a quick release cycle focusing on the development  
needs of GIMP, programmers might be willing to set aside their own  
projects temporarily in order to make GIMP more conducive to further  
developerment.

If I may be so bold, what follows is my own proposal for the 2.6 roadmap:

I think that substituting GEGL into the GIMP core should be the main  
focus. This should be done in a manner such that the user is not  
confronted with the directed graph nature of GEGL -- i.e., the user  
interface limits GEGL nodes to just three drawable inputs: the active  
layer, the projection of "lower" layers, and the layermask (if present).

The only significant change from a user standpoint should be the  
addition of "layer groups". From a rendering standpoint, layer groups  
dictate a certain degree of low-level functionality that would best be  
addressed during incorporation of GEGL into the core (particularly,  
"nesting" of composited projections).

 From a user interface standpoint, "layer groups" would entail  
significant changes to the tree view of the layerstack; as well as  
changes in behavior of certain operations such as raising/lowering,  
linking/hiding, duplicating/deleting, and drag-n-drop of layers.  
Implementing this would be a fairly extensive undertaking (probably  
requiring more developer resources), but would best be handled  at the  
same time as the GEGL incorporation to avoid future conflicts in  
implementing the appropriate model-view-controller paradigm.

Finally, there should be an effort to maintain integrity of the XCF  
file format by converting between the core implementation of layer  
groups and parasites attached to drawables during saves and loads of  
XCF files (older GIMP versions would read the files but lose the layer  
grouping information).

Providing "layer groups" would be an evident improvement to GIMP while  
incorporating GEGL is necessary for furthering development efforts.  
Issues such as CMYK, layer effects, deeper bit-depth color, and  
improved text handling would be better addressed once GEGL is embedded  
into GIMP. Usability enhancements might be pursued, but should not be  
permitted to prolong the release cycle.

Though I have as yet contributed very little to GIMP development (and  
nothing towards that of GEGL), I have spent a good deal of time trying  
to gain an overall understanding and hope to become more helpful in  
the future.

---------------------------------------------------

Quoting Sven Neumann <sven@gimp.org>:

> Hi,
>
> so far we didn't have a well-defined development roadmap. I would like
> to propose that this is changed for GIMP 2.6 and beyond. Hopefully this
> can help to acomplish two goals:
>
>  - GIMP 2.6 should not take too long to develop
>  - we will get more developers
>
> Before we start the discussion of the roadmap, perhaps we should talk
> about how we should go about getting to a roadmap. Should we do it on
> this list, do we want to use a Wiki, Bugzilla or anything like that?
>
> IMO it would be best if people proposed features here so that they can
> be discussed on the list. We should then collect these proposals
> somewhere and try to decide on milestones for them later. It would
> probably help if we try to be strict bout only proposing a single
> feature per mail.
>
> What do you think?



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