https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=373060
At first, i tried to implement the feature like the swap_color feature inside app/core/gimpcontext.[ch], but on GimpTool.
I've made a first patch implementing that straight GimpTool swapping and posted it on bugzilla (see comment #12), but I'm really not satisfied with this : it does only creates a redundant keyboard shortcut, which I really find useless.
So I crafted a new user scenario :
As a gimp user, I know existing shortcuts, I may even have rearranged them to fit better to my workflow, be more accessible on my kb layout and so on.
When I want to switch to the last used tool, I really mean the last tool I found useful and actually used. Not the selection tool I switched on in the meantime to restrict the area I'm painting on, but this red grunge textured paintbrush I used before switching to a corrective tiny round with erase blending mode.
Hope you follow my thoughts.
The Idea is :
- switching to last actual GimpTool is not enough, it's not that useful (wasting a key) and cannot track changes on the same tool's options, that is the part where you tweak your current options to make the tiniest changes, and cannot revert back to your previous options because you did not use another tool.
+ So, let's make a snapshot of what the user actually uses - tool, colors, brush, pattern, gradient, dynamics, tool options, ... - and keep it somewhere to restore it later.
- Then it keeps track of every tool, every tiniest changes if possible to track them, not the useful ones.
In a real painting area, that would mean switching back to your glass of fresh diet coke instead of that big blue oiled brush, or switching to the brush you are using with a more orthogonal tilt instead of the red one you just used before. Stupid.
+ So we don't want to track every changes, we want to allow the user to decide that this tool he is using right now is really useful, and that he wants to restore it exactly as it is.
For users who owns a tablet with a stylus+eraser, this feature would just do the same as turning your pen upside down to use the other tool.
I quickly described a possible user interaction in comment #13 on bugzilla :
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I think this feature should backup and restore a snapshot of the entire active
GimpContext, not only the GimpTool.
User Interaction :
- Keyboard shortcut : <shift>X
- On first use, the active context is backed up but remains active.
- On next uses, the active context is backed up, and previously saved context
is restored.
This would allow a more complete user-defined tool swapping instead of just
swapping different GimpTools back and forth.
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Now I wonder how and where to implement it. The context systems seems more spread and complex than just swapping GimpTools as I did on my first attempt.
Furthermore, Mitch pointed out that gimp has had that kind of feature ages ago, and I dug up a related commit from ChangeLog.pre-2-0 :
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2003-02-25 Sven Neumann <sven@xxxxxxxx>
* app/gui/tools-commands.[ch]: removed "Swap Contexts" functionality.
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Sven, may you remember what was the reason of this removal ? (7 years ago)
Wise people, please advise me.
Damien.
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