Nondestructive photo-retouching/editing, implementation using GEGL?

[Neilen Marais <nmarais snowisp com>]

Hi

I wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to implement as little as possible
of the low-level image-manipulation functionality in F-spot itself. The
goals of the GEGL http://www.gegl.org/ library, which also aims to be the
back-end of GIMP seems like it can be quite useful.

Image operations are specified in an XML file, which would make it quite
easy to store manipulations in the F-Sport DB. This would also make
it possibe to import/export image manipulations for use with other
apps. 

Using GEGL will make the performance and correctness of various
image operations an SEP (Sombody Else's Problem). Since it should
become the back-end to GIMP I'm sure it will get a lot more love than the
F-spot community could give a similar library on its own.

Of course GEGL has been a long time coming (as anyone who longs for more
than 8bit/channel support in GIMP may well be aware), but there seems to
have been some encouraging activity of late. It seems like it may already
be useful for F-spot's needs.

I say this all as a non-developer and currently non-user of F-spot, but I
do sense much potential in F-spot. I also think using GEGL or similar as
the back-end for the image manipulations is a Right Thing (tm). So there
you have my 2c :)

Regards
Neilen

-- 
you know its kind of tragic 
we live in the new world
but we've lost the magic
-- Battery 9 (www.battery9.co.za)