Re: Fw: suggestion for new versions of GIMP

Aleksandar Kovac <alex.open.design@xxxxxxxxx> · Wed, 30 Nov 2011 17:10:15 +0900



    On 11-11-30 12:12 , Srihari Sriraman wrote:
    ok...
      If the user rearranges his Menu badly, then maybe we could
        give a "reset menu" option?

        but ya, maybe we can't trust users with their menus... they
          might get lost... :)
        I've got another idea...
        

        How about a Gnome-Do or a Launchy for
          GIMP?
        
          
            Alt+Space could bring up a small window just like in
              [1].
            The user then types his keyword, and that would bring a
              dropdown of all the matched plugins
          
          (Example: typing blur could drop down all
          blur-related plugins -or- typing canvas could
          dropdown all canvas related plugins)

          
            The user uses arrow keys to choose and hits Enter to run
              plugin. (Or just hit Enter for the 1st suggestion)
            The suggestions would be adaptive, i.e, more frequently
              used plugins appear higher in the drop-down
            The search could span the plugin-name, menu-position and
              the description
          
          (Example: typing logo could dropdown 3DOutline, and
          so on)
        

        This way, the placement of plugins in the menu could remain
          unchanged, and the user still gets to his plugin easily.
        I seldom use the Applications Menu in my Ubuntu. I don even
          know where the application is in the menu. I just Win+Space!
        People using Gnome-Do or something similar can easily
          relate to this suggestion.
        

        [1] http://peterstuifzand.nl/images/gnome-do-screenshot.png
      
    
    Hi Srihari,

      
      Yes, that's how Blender does it, but it's more than a search bar.
      You can use it for almost any command Blender can do via
      'conventional' GUI. Anyone interested might want to check out the theory
      behind, and the implementation of, Aza Raskin's 'Enso'. AFAIK,
      that was the first implementation of the idea. It is system wide,
      customizable, and if I am not wrong, context aware.

      ...

    (I can not connect
      why would typing 'logo' result in 3DOutline? But don't
      fret. I can not connect great many things...)

    
    ...

    
    This is an interesting approach. Perhaps the scope of it is even
    beyond GIMP and maybe should have a dedicated place for discussion.
    Hybrids between the
      command line and GUI can be very powerful, but I do have a couple of boring
      questions.

      
    - How would another
      gnome-do or launchy-like utility sit in user's understanding of the
      overall computer environment? 

      - Should this utility be a part of 'standard issue' GIMP or be
      something separate, a matter of user's preference?

      - Will it ask for some 'compliance' from GIMP and plugin
      developers? 

      - Would it accept any syntax/expressions? (e.g.: "select inverse,
      gaussian blur 30px", allowing me to avoid ever increasing GUI
      creativity of plugin developers) ;)

      
      A wide-eyed child in me fantasizes this workflow:

    For the reasons of
      focus and sanity of the respective project's developers, I imagine
      a separately developed 'thingy'. 

      This 'thingy' accepts installable 'command' bundles for various
      applications. The bundles are made by users and collected at
      thingybundles.org. Currently, I have GIMP, Inkscape, Libre Office
      and Scribus command bundles. Thanks to command bundles, 'thingy'
      talks to applications, providing me, the majestic user, a
      relatively consistent way to do an awful lot (and still suck at
      it)... Someone really smart even provided 'thingy' with a command
      thesaurus of sorts. Thesaurus allows me some freedom of _expression_
      when typing, so to say. 'Move', 'translate', 'grab'? It's all the
      same... You get the point. 

      
      For example, to scale, all I have to do when using 'thingy' is
      make a selection in either of the aforementioned applications and
      just type 'scale' which will, in turn, put me in scaling mode for
      that, currently active application. For the 'thingy', you see, is
      context aware, too. ;). Since I rely on 'thingy' in my everyday
      workflow, I turned off most of the application's panels and enjoy
      more 'screen'. When I really need those GUI elements, 'thingy'
      will show them for me and hide them later.

      
      The wide-eyed adolescent shouts: Hell yeah! Give it cross
      application scripting ability, too! So I can type: 'Gramma's
      party', which will import all the photos from gramma's birthday,
      process them in GIMP or Darktable using my personal
      'Trip-o-vision-kolorz' megaplugin that granny likes so much, place
      them in Scribus template, export PDF, print it and call me on the
      phone when it's done. Oh yes, and an integrated command bundle
      editor and manager would be sweet, too!

      ...

      The 'real' me wonders by now, should I just stop and go and see a
      specialist... :)

      ...

      Almost forgot. Frequency based adaptive lists are a disaster. MS
      Office? Anyone?  

      
      Alex

    
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