On 10/12/06, Jakub Steiner <jimmac@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Phillip, The two major use cases when this would be a more efficient interface is for us GIMPers who already know what functionality they want and don't need to go three levels deep, but also for novice users for who it will perhaps be easier to search for 'replace color' instead of browsing through the menu tree. If filters and functions have some additional metadata, providing for example name of the same functionality in competing graphic packages, things would become easier to discover for novices.
I agree that the commands should be searchable by many terms. But I think all terms should be part of the description, not be metadata. Auxiliary terms could appear in parentheses and an understated color. Thus the user would be able to see *why* a particular command matches his search. Otherwise it would feel a bit magical, kind of like the current mechanism of invoking commands using a single keystroke. If the auxiliay terms appear in the description, the user would also learn what the given operation is called in Gimp. (And it's easier to implement than metadata.)
Additionally this interface would allow to provide not only a brief name of the function, but also a small graphic demonstrating the function where applicable. I envisioned using a tile-based interface for this not unlike the beagle-search tool* but never gotten to mock things up. Feel like speccing things up? ;)
[rearranged]
* http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/54/Beagle-search.png
A graphic would be great if this proves not to slow down the display of matches. I think it is imperative that the commands appear as fast as possible, and certainly in no more than 1 second. What do you mean by demonstration -- a thumbnail of the image that has been transformed with the command? Or performing the command on the whole image before the Enter key is hit? This may make it slow to navigate to the desired entry using the keys. Why do you think a tiled arrangement is better than a vertical list? I envisioned it like the Gmail address interface. I would love to make the description more formal, if someone tells me how. Is that what you mean by "spec things up"?
This would be a nice summer of code project for next year.
Agreed. Is anyone familiar with the process of creating a GSoC project? _______________________________________________ Gimp-developer mailing list Gimp-developer@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx https://lists.XCF.Berkeley.EDU/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer
