GIMP 2.8 Scheduled For Release Post-Christmas

[kurros]

What about 16bit/channel support? Will it be implemented in 2.8?

From the article:

One of the fundamental changes for GIMP 2.8 is that it will now be licensed under the GNU GPLv3+ license and more of the code is being ported over to use GEGL.

So that is the plan. Dunno if it will be everywhere though.

[V!NCENT]

Big changes to complex software take a long time. Sometimes the passage of time is hidden (ie the foundation work is done quietly or in a private repo) and sometimes the passage of time is visible (as is the case here) but if you look at pretty much any major software revision there's usually a year or two between starting work and having a solid finished product.

So you are saying that the ATI blob driver is having this, errrr, 'problem'?

Incremental changes can easily appear in incremental releases, but major internal changes normally don't lend themselves to frequent releases.

Then why are some incremental bugs not sorted out with the monthly drivers. I have seen people constantly complain about: "Hey when are you finally going to fix X. It just requires a simple solution Y that I can do in Z minutes!"? Or are they supposed to be fixed by major overhauls?

[bridgman]

So you are saying that the ATI blob driver is having this, errrr, 'problem'?

Not right now, but we did have to go through something like this a few years ago when we revamped the driver stack to use the new OpenGL driver.

(bridgman thinks "weren't we talking about GIMP ?")

Then why are some incremental bugs not sorted out with the monthly drivers. I have seen people constantly complain about: "Hey when are you finally going to fix X. It just requires a simple solution Y that I can do in Z minutes!"? Or are they supposed to be fixed by major overhauls?

Because the fixes aren't there to distribute ? Not sure I understand the question. If you mean "why isn't bug XYZ *fixed* when someone uninvolved with the driver thinks it's easy ?", which is totally different from what we were talking about (release scheduling for major architectural changes) I guess the main reasons are :

a) the problem isn't as easy to fix as the person complaining believes

b) the developers are working on something different instead, ie lack of agreement that bug XYZ is highest priority at the moment

c) the bug is system-specific and doesn't occur on our systems, making it hard to fix

[nilsph]

arbitrary color depth support

So that is the plan. Dunno if it will be everywhere though.

AIUI, 2.8 is the GIMP release where old image processing code will be replaced by gegl/babl pervasively, but it won't support other color depths than 8bit. While gegl/babl supports arbitrary color depths, the app needs to be changed to have that as well.

While 2.8 could be delayed until arbitrary color depths are supported, it's probably better to get 2.8 out as planned (which will have important other features besides GEGL) and get arbitrary color depths support in the next version.