[gimp-web] content: first structure draft for the GIMP 2.99.10 release news.

[Jehan <jehanp src gnome org>]

commit fb16f68099d9265a8a88a12693ce676db890c1fb
Author: Jehan <jehan girinstud io>
Date:   Tue Feb 22 17:17:31 2022 +0100

    content: first structure draft for the GIMP 2.99.10 release news.
    
    I've started to write some parts, but most of it is still absent.

 .../gimp-2-99-10-20220221-experiments.jpg          | Bin 0 -> 363326 bytes
 .../2022/2022-02_GIMP-2.99.10_Released/index.md    | 213 +++++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 213 insertions(+)
---
diff --git a/content/news/2022/2022-02_GIMP-2.99.10_Released/gimp-2-99-10-20220221-experiments.jpg 
b/content/news/2022/2022-02_GIMP-2.99.10_Released/gimp-2-99-10-20220221-experiments.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..1f5a95d4
Binary files /dev/null and 
b/content/news/2022/2022-02_GIMP-2.99.10_Released/gimp-2-99-10-20220221-experiments.jpg differ
diff --git a/content/news/2022/2022-02_GIMP-2.99.10_Released/index.md 
b/content/news/2022/2022-02_GIMP-2.99.10_Released/index.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..24c5f307
--- /dev/null
+++ b/content/news/2022/2022-02_GIMP-2.99.10_Released/index.md
@@ -0,0 +1,213 @@
+Title: Development version: GIMP 2.99.10 Released
+Date: 2022-02-23
+Category: News
+Authors: Wilber
+Slug: gimp-2-99-10-released
+Summary: Release news for development version GIMP 2.99.10
+Image: gimp-2-99-10-20220221-experiments.jpg
+Status: draft
+
+GIMP 2.99.10 is once again a pretty massive step in our development
+plans toward GIMP 3.0.
+
+<figure>
+<a href="{attach}gimp-2-99-10-20220221-experiments.jpg">
+<img src="{attach}gimp-2-99-10-20220221-experiments.jpg" alt="Experiments - Wilber and co. comics strip by 
Aryeom"/>
+</a>
+<figcaption>
+<em>"Experiments" by <a href="https://film.zemarmot.net";>Aryeom</a>, Creative Commons by-sa 4.0 - GIMP 
2.99.10</em>
+</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+[TOC]
+
+To get a more complete list of changes, you should refer to the
+[NEWS](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/blob/3e58204908b6301501d7ccd09936fd3d8f7baa94/NEWS#L9)
+file or look at the [commit
+history](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/commits/master).
+
+## "Linked layers" superseded by "layer sets"
+
+Our stable series (2.10) still uses a concept of "linked layers", which
+is mostly for transforming layers together. For instance, say you want
+to translate, rotate or shear several layers the exact same way. You
+would link them with the "chain" 🔗 icon next to each layer in the
+Layers dockable.
+
+In GIMP 3.0, as we have multi-selection of layers and that all the
+transform tools were already made to work on multiple layers at once,
+this concept was redundant and confusing. Nevertheless there was still
+one added value: as a way to mark and store a relation between layers.
+
+This is why we remove the link feature and added instead an "item set"
+feature. An "item set" is a selection of items (can be layers or
+channels) stored with a name.
+For instance, you could select a few layers together and store this
+selection as a layer set. Anytime in the future, you can select the same
+layers again in one click, without going through the slow process of
+clicking them one by one.
+
+There is more! The same dialog allows you to search through layers by
+names. Say I want to select all layers containing "marmot", I could
+search "marmot". Done.
+
+For the geekest of us: by default, this search uses simple text search,
+but in preferences, you can also set the search entry to use the Glob or
+Regular Expression syntax!
+
+## Item locks redesigned
+
+The locks (position, contents and alpha) used to be at the top of the
+Layers or Channels dockables. It meant that to know whether a specific
+layer was locked, you had to select it. Worse, when selecting several
+layers, the buttons could end up in an inconsistent state (if some
+layers are locked and others not).
+
+So we moved the locks to the space left vacant by the now-defunct "link"
+🔗 icon, next to each item. Clicking it will open a small popover dialog
+where you can select the lock type.
+Selecting a single lock will show it next to the visibility (eye 👁️)
+icon, selecting 2 locks or more will show a generic multi-locks icon.
+Each of the new icons, specific or generic, were designed by Aryeom.
+You now know in a single glimpse to the layers list which ones are
+locked or not.
+
+Among other advantages, the lock icons now allow the `Shift-click`
+interaction, same as the visibility icon, so that one can switch many
+items' locks at once. We also created a new `Alt-click` interaction to
+switch locks within all selected layers. So we now have:
+
+* Simple `click` on a lock or visibility icon: the clicked item's
+  visibility or lock state is switched.
+* `Shift-click`: the clicked item's stays visible/locked while the
+  visibility or lock state of all **other items on the same level** in
+  the layer tree is switched ON or OFF.
+* `Alt-click`: the clicked item's stays visible/locked while the
+  visibility or lock state of all **other selected items** is switched
+  ON or OFF.
+
+You will notice that we also added a new lock, the "Visibility Lock". As
+the name implies, it prevents the visibility status to be modified. This
+is especially interesting together with features allowing to change
+multiple items at once, like the `Shift-click` or `Alt-Click` actions
+explained above. You could for instance have a background image locked
+to be always visible, then you could switch other foreground layers'
+visibility while always keeping the background visible.
+
+Among other changes in this area, the alpha and position locks can now
+be set on Layer groups:
+
+* Alpha lock on groups mostly works like contents lock on groups (except
+  that it's for the alpha channel only), i.e. that it forbids to change
+  the alpha channel from any child layer.
+* Position lock work both ways by forbidding moving child layers but
+  also parent layers.
+
+A document was also written to better [specify the behaviors of various
+locks](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/blob/master/devel-docs/specifications/locks.md).
+
+Last, but not least, two changes were made to improve discoverability of
+the visibile and especially the lock buttons:
+
+* The visibility and lock columns in the dockable now have icon headers,
+  making their presence more obvious.
+* Our default theme will now provide visible hints around inactive
+  button areas while hovering these clickable areas.
+
+## Wayland and macOS support
+
+Various bugs and improvements have been made specifically to Wayland and
+macOS support. These often go together as we notice that many of the
+issues which appear on one of these also appear of the other, as we
+guess they follow similar principles.
+
+On macOS in particular though, there were massive slowness issues of the
+2.99 development series, so much that at some point, our packager feared
+that GIMP 3.0 on macOS would never be usable.
+Well we are proud to announce this was premature despair as we finally
+found some solutions for some things, workarounds for others (sometimes
+not too pretty), enough for GIMP to be finally usable and even faster
+than the 2.10 series in our various tests! Our only uncertainty is that
+the code was mostly tested on macOS Monterey. We are not sure of the
+situation on Big Sur where the problem really started.
+
+Several of the parts of the solutions lead us to GTK patches. Not
+everything is upstream yet, but we already use our current satisfying
+patch set in our own DMG package. This will help other projects using
+GTK3 and experiencing similar issues.
+
+## Enabling/Disabling dynamics simplified
+
+## New feature for Line Art mode of bucket fill tool
+
+## Going further with our compact slider widget
+
+## Official plug-ins
+### PSD
+### JPEG-XL
+### Microsoft Windows Cursor (`.cur`)
+### Screenshot on Windows
+### HEIF
+### Deprecating `help-browser` and `webpage` plug-ins
+
+## Build and documentation
+### Icon theme handling and refactoring
+### Clang-format check in Continuous Integration
+### `flatpak-release` tool to test older versions easily
+### New contributor documentation
+
+## Improved API for plug-ins
+
+## Team news
+
+On our main source repository, "*reporter*" access (allowing to triage
+reports: labelling, closing, reopening, and moving reports…) have been
+given to nmat and Liam Quin.
+
+Ondřej Míchal has now been given write access to the package repository
+for our stable and beta flatpak on Flathub, thus joining Hubert Figuière
+and Jehan for maintenance, after various improvements to our various
+flatpak packages, including some very nice work for automatic detection
+of outdated dependencies, thanks to the `flatpak-external-data-checker`
+tool.
+
+TODO: translators and gimp-help + some contribution stats?
+
+## Downloading GIMP 2.99.10
+
+As usual, GIMP 2.99.10 is available on [GIMP official website
+(gimp.org)](https://www.gimp.org/downloads/devel/):
+
+* The Linux development flatpak has already been published so that
+  anyone who installed it previously should have an update proposed by
+  their software manager (or from terminal: `flatpak update
+  org.gimp.GIMP//beta`).
+
+* The Windows installer is already available too, very quickly thanks to
+  the [new installer release process](#automated-release-installers).
+
+* The macOS DMG package will hopefully be published [*soonish*](#macos).
+
+## What's next
+
+This release is quite heavy on API-side updates, which is one of the big
+blocker for GIMP 3.0 release (still some work-in-progress on this side).
+The "link" concept was also an old concept which needed to disappear for
+GIMP 3.0, so this is one less blocker as this change is now completely
+finished.
+
+The GTK port is also another big blocker, and important work in this
+direction has been started by some contributors, regarding a move to the
+`GApplication` and `GtkApplication` frameworks and the `GAction` port.
+These patches are still heavily under work and review and have not been
+merged in any form in GIMP 2.99.10, so we will have the opportunity to
+talk more about it on the next release most likely.
+
+Meanwhile work related to Wayland and macOS support are still taking
+quite a bit of developer time as you can see.
+
+Don't forget you can [donate to the project and personally fund several
+GIMP developers](https://www.gimp.org/donating/), as a way to give back
+and accelerate the development of GIMP. As you know, the [maintainers of
+GEGL and GIMP are crowdfunding to be able to work full-time on free
+software](https://www.gimp.org/news/2021/07/27/support-gimp-developers-sustainable-development/). 🥳