GIMP's Progress In 2016, What's Ahead For 2017

[ldo17]

Ah... GIMP. The open source project that chose to use an acronym that spells out a word with only negative definitions. Because of that I can't recommend it to anyone.

It nicely keeps away those who judge a book by its cover, doesn’t it?

[andrei_me]

Ah... GIMP. The open source project that chose to use an acronym that spells out a word with only negative definitions. Because of that I can't recommend it to anyone. Seriously, one definition is a specific form of sexual deviancy and the other is a derogatory term for a cripple.

The word "gay" once meant "happy person"

[SpyroRyder]

Sorry, but I get a parser error here

Do you mean that spending 6 more years on GTK+4 / GSK port is OK? Or not OK?

We absolutely do not want spending years on the GTK+3 (or GTK+ 4) port. Non-destructive editing is way, way too long overdue.

Not okay is what I meant.

I disagree for several reasons:

1. GTK+ 3 port is already well advanced
2. GTK+ 3 is stable, 4 is not
3. GTK+ 3 has ports for Windows and OSX, these ports tends to take some time for newer versions of GTK
4. GTK+ 3 will bring Wayland compatibility, which is more important than GSK right now
5. Using GSK will probably be a pretty long refactoring I suppose, so I'd rather not wait for that to have the next version

It would be nice to have a new version of GIMP every 6 months. Even is the improvements aren't extraordinary, I think it's saner to do regular releases, especially with a small team of devs.

Only the first point is really relevant and only then if they really need to do a lot of code changing for the parts that are ported. Your other points seem to assume that it'll take them no time at all to get this port done once they focus on it completely. gtk4 not being stable now won't matter much if the development cycle is even half what the last two have been because by the time it comes out gtk 4 will have as well. While I get your concerns about Windows/OSX I also can't find any info stating that gtk4 is broken on them, but with GSK being based on OpenGL I also can't see it being hard to port if it isn't already working. Likewise with the Wayland support, your development version of gimp will work just as well on Wayland with 4 as it will with 3. Andyou're right, GSK probably will have a longer refactoring period but like I said earlier I would rather spend extra long now than have a situation where, like gtk3 now, a port is on the books for 6+ years and isn't seen to because of the other high priorty goals.

[ua=42]

It nicely keeps away those who judge a book by its cover, doesn’t it?

Yep. If your goal is to keep away potential users and programmers from an open source project.... then yes. It isn't like someone who has never heard of the programing project would get confused if someone spoke out about how they like the GIMP thought they were talking about gimps. But I guess if you really want to keep away those who judge a book by its cover.... you should try to change its name from GIMP to Adolf Hitler. That would slightly more effective.

</sarcasm>

Project names matter.... especially when they form a real word that people already know the definition of.
Same for user interfaces... they matter, if its a confusing mess people won't like using it.
Prettiness matters - people like to use stuff that's nice looking.

Project name - FAIL
UI - Problematic - Why is the entire menu system appearing when I right click on a selection on a image! It should be context aware ... not the entire f@&#^@# menu system! Two different locations for image filters..... for some reason. etc, etc....
Prettiness - FAIL - It uses gtk... aka it doesn't appear native on anything other than gnome. Looks like win 98 app when running it on Windows. I've seen Java apps do a better job of looking native.

[kayosiii]

Ah... GIMP. The open source project that chose to use an acronym that spells out a word with only negative definitions. Because of that I can't recommend it to anyone. Seriously, one definition is a specific form of sexual deviancy and the other is a derogatory term for a cripple.

It might suprise you to find out that those are not the only definitions of gimp, for instance it is also a synonym for dapper.
I am guessing you are an american or at least just as annoying.

[ldo17]

Yep. If your goal is to keep away potential users and programmers from an open source project.... then yes.

There will always be those who prefer form over content...