[Gimp-developer] 2.6 roadmap: my summary.

[Guillermo Espertino]

Sven Nwumann wrote:
> Nice to remind us of some issues but we are not going to put user wishes
> on our roadmap. It is rather distracting to post user wishes to the
> developer list. People here should be aware of the shortcomings and
> without being a developer, your opinion is just one of many users.
> 
> But let's look at some of your suggestions nevertheless...


Dear Sven:
What I suggested are not "my wishes". I'm a professional designer and 
GIMP is a tool for my work. The things that I wrote are issues that make 
my work more difficult, while they shouldn't.
I tried to describe problems in a common workflow that need to be 
solved, not specific requests of my preference. I'm not asking for a 
save for web plugin, a "slicer" tool, or a plugin for a specific 
application. They're simple annoyances that make using gimp less 
effective for common tasks of image manipulation

For instance, the first request. An opaque original when you're 
transforming loses its purpose. If it obstructs the context it has no 
use. Being semi-transparent would be a great help, because that way it 
gives a visual track of the original dimensions/shape.
But if it cannot be made semi-transparent for a couple of years, maybe 
the best solution is hiding the original and  work directly  on the 
transformed.
This isn't a "wish". Nobody can scale down an image to place it in a 
certain place when a big original doesn't let see the context.
I know that I can low the layer opacity to 50% manually before 
transforming it, but it is tedious and reduces the productivity. I 
wonder if it is impossible to automate that  manual procedure meanwhile.
When I wrote the word "obvious" (I guess it was a bad word choice) I was 
thinking in what it was proposed for the image navigator (changing 
simple booleans to semi-transparent objects) and in my head made sense 
that this issue could be covered. I never wanted to suggest that it's 
trivial to implement it.

2) Bad words choice again. Redrawing is not slow. I can drag the view 
and it's very fast.
The problem is turning on/off or moving a layer. I work with large 
images and blending modes. Just open three images in a A4 artwork, 300 
dpi, put normal the firs, multiplied the second and screen the third and 
switch on and off one of the top layers. It is slow. It's just the 
visibility of a layer and it doesn't give inmediate feedback. I don't 
want to start comparing applications, but among the tools that I've 
used, Gimp is the only program where turning layers on/off them doesn't 
give inmediate feedback.
The problem extends to color adjustments as well. I can wait for a 
filter, but when you're tweaking colors a realtime or near realtime 
feedback is important.
The improvements you planned for this area will be welcome.

4) Ouch! :) I read something about angle constraints using shift in the 
old documentation, but I tried to find it again and I couldn't.
I guess I'm wrong then.
Anyway, not having angle constraints in the path tool kills a big part 
of its functionality. Right now it's impossible to make vertical or 
horizontal segments, and needing them is not rare at all. Beyond that, 
the bézier tool of Gimp is awesome.

About the other things, I can't make patches, but believe me that I'm 
trying to convince people with the proper abilities to join to the 
development team and provide solutions for commonly asked requests. It's 
not an easy task though.
Thanks anyway for your detailed reply. I appreciate you took the time 
for it.

Cheers,
Gez.