Re: [Gimp-developer] Screenshot tool: Unify plugin for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X

[Ofnuts <ofnuts laposte net>]

On 03/03/2012 11:03 AM, grafxuser wrote:
> Hi,
>
> lately I compared the plugins versions for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X 
> for a bug report. Surprisingly the Windows version is totally 
> different from the others. It only offers three options: capture a 
> single window, capture the whole screen and the delay in seconds. All 
> the other useful options are missing, although they would be of use in 
> Windows, too.
>
> The Windows' version plugin is Craig Seteras WinSnap v0.70 
> (07/16/1999). Compared to Linux' and Macs plug-in-screenshot this is a 
> quite old version, which doesn't seem to be maintained by Craig Setera 
> anymore.
>
> On the other hand, there are a lot of good or more sophisticated 
> screenshot tools existing. Some of them ship with every Windows 7, Mac 
> OS X, GNOME or KDE distribution. Maybe there a screencapture tools, 
> which give better results for some particular window managers, like 
> Enlightenment. Why reinvent the wheel, even with restricted developing 
> capacities? To provide a good solution while keeping the own
> development efforts manageable, GIMP could users give the choice 
> between GIMP's own screenshot plugin in its current state (which would 
> be fixed in basic points and frozen then), the operating systems own 
> screenshot tool and third party tools (SnagIt etc). Results from other 
> tools should then be seamlessly reimported into GIMP.
> I suggest to place a listbox in the settings dialog with the following 
> items: GIMPs screenshot tool, operating systems tool, Other...
> The second item would be Windows' 'Snipping tool', Mac's screencapture 
> tool, on Linux' KDEs KSnapshot or whatever. The item 'Other...' would 
> let the user choose an third-party executable for screenshots.
>
> How do you think about this enhancement?

I don't see much purpose in explicitly using external snapshot tools 
from within Gimp. If the users have these tools installed they know how 
to use them, and they may have a hotkey that makes them a lot easier to 
access directly than from Gimp. And I don't see how Gimp is going to 
keep up with an even growing list... "File/Create/from clipboard" gives 
the most bang for the buck if you want to use external snapshot tools.