GIMPsters,
2.4 is out and I want to thank Sven, Martin and Mitch for working
with me on realising a substantial part of the select/crop tools
specification.
For me the transition into the 2.6 development cycle also marks
the start of where working on the UI revamp of GIMP will be
more strategic, architectural and structural. A sharp reduction
of expert interaction design on a fire-fighting, slap on a
band-aid basis.
Roadmapping what over-arching UI topics will be dealt with
in this release will be necessary to have UI specifications
ready _before_ implementation starts. During 2.4 it has already
been shown that having a UI spec encourages new developer
participation and that can only be a good thing.
From my UI-redesign point of view, we need to get GEGL and Cairo
in GIMP, else there is little chance of innovation in the UI.
Also what the GIMP project needs right now is a short (< 6 months)
development cycle. A short-distance run to get its heart beating faster.
So it is a matter of not stuffing the roadmap and I can help there
by not proposing to start working on big issues. I think that enough
UI work will come our way as side effects:
for instance:
Half of the select/crop tools is still to-be-implemented, part
of it (narrow situation) needs further specification and hmmm,
Cairo is introduced. I say lets finish the select/crop tools
making full use cairo, like transparency.
Working on the problems we have easily moving the contents of
selections, you pretty soon hit the floating selection mechanism.
We already identified in our evaluation that as something that
needs to be transformed from a headache that makes you think
into something that you never notice but just works.
It looks at the moment that at the user experience level just
about nothing will come out of the GEGL introduction in 2.6.
May I point out the elephant in the room by saying that if
2.6 could deliver 'better than 16 bit per channel' resolution
that that would be seen all friends and foes out there as a
huge step forward for GIMP?
Yes, that is a huge job if you think of it in the context of
the handful of people who work at the moment on development.
But it is exactly the kind of roadmap goal that could attract
a dozen new developers to help with moving all core existing
plugins to the new system.
Mitch has some plans where the GEGL move could impact in UI.
I will let him outline that first, before proposing what could
be improved in the same swoop.
--ps
founder + principal interaction architect
man + machine interface works
http://mmiworks.net/blog : on interaction architecture
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