[Gimp-developer] lgm 07, top???5 GIMP user requests...

[Guillermo Espertino]

Fist of all, I want to thank Peter for his excellent work. I'm glad to 
see that several problems of GIMP's GUI are being revisited and most of 
the solutions suggested will be welcome in future releases.
I don't agree with #1 request, though. I know that this has been a 
frequent request for years, but I think it's just a matter of habit. I'm 
a Photoshop user, and a Gimp user, too. After a couple of days I could 
understand the power of floating windows. Switching between floating 
windows and fullscreen with F11 is fast and easy, and my workflow is far 
better this way.
And when I connected a second monitor it was even better. Floating 
windows ROCK!
Turning Gimp into a MDI application will make several users happy, but 
IMO it won't benefit Gimp at all.
I think it would be better to improve the way those floating windows work:
- by creating only one item in the windows list, grouping GIMP's 
windows, instead of one item for each panel (it's quite confusing)
- by making toolbox and dockers dependant of the "canvas" window.
As it was discussed before, this brings a new problem: where should the 
menu bar be placed. Of course, the document window is the most ovbious 
choice, but as we use floating windows, it won't be any document window 
when we open the program.
Maybe the best option is to create a new kind of splashscreen, where we 
get as options:
-Create a new image (if you choose this, the new image dialog appears, 
with dimensions, templates, color mode, etc.)
-Open existing image/s (if you choose this, the filer appears, letting 
you pick an image or a group of images).
Once you made your choice, the toolbox and dockers will appear along the 
document/s window/s.
(I'm thinking about something like the latest Adobe Premiere Pro initial 
screen, for instance, but in the GTK/floating windows fashion)

Another thing that was covered in your work is the use of the screen 
space. I agree that the current menu layout is a waste of pixels.
But this is already possible to improve in Gimp using the small theme 
and putting the tool options panel in the docker window. This allows you 
to shrink the toolbox, gaining much window space.
You can see a screenshot of my current tool layout in gimp using that 
idea here:
http://www.ohweb.com.ar/screenshots/Gimp-Screenshot.jpg

Well, just my two cents.
Thanks again for your work!

Gez