Re: [Gimp-developer] [Mypaint-discuss] Brushpack file format

[Boudewijn Rempt <boud valdyas org>]

On Tuesday 16 April 2013 Apr 15:51:17 Elliott Sales de Andrade wrote:
> > Following the create spec:
>
> I guess this spec is new, since I don't see it on freedesktop's wiki.

Well, no, it's so old that it disappeared -- it was on the old create wiki which got deleted some time ago. 
People are working to put it up again.

> > /usr/share/create/brushpacks: global location for shared brushpacks. If a distro creates a repo package 
> > of a brush pack, it should be installed here.
> >
> > /usr/share/apps/$APP/...: global location for application-specific brushpacks. Here the brushpacks 
> > bundled with an application are stored
>
> My /usr/share directory is already subdivided by application-specific
> directories. Why do we need the extra 'apps' directory?

Sorry, this bit was unclear -- basically a brainfart, a combination of what was in my head for krita 
(/usr/share/kde4/apps/krita) and what's actually present. It's a bit messy, like everything, but what's meant 
here is, the place where resources packages with an application are usually installed, system-wise.

> > $HOME/$APP_DATA_DIR/...: e.g. .kde/share/apps/krita/brushpacks: here the user installs brushpacks that 
> > she doesn't want to share with other applications
>
> Hopefully this .kde bit is just an old KDE thing, because it'd be nice
> if it followed XDG and was $HOME/.local/share/$APP.

That'll happen when KDE Frameworks 5 gets released and Krita gets ported to it. Or not -- I don't actually 
know :-) It's just where krita looks for stuff right now. Again, an example of an impementation detail.


> > * the toplevel contains a manifest.xml file that contains author, copyright and license information.
>
> Shouldn't this be part of the brushpack? It seems like the directory
> is "the thing", and the zip file is just a convenient transport.
> * Say you install a bunch of zip files by extracting them to one of
> the directories above. Now the manifest.xml is just for the last zip
> file and you lost all the rest.

That's a good point. Mitch proposed that a brushpack always unpacks into one directory, with subdirectories 
-- maybe we should make that mandatory.

> * Say you decide to move a brushpack from local to global. What do you
> do with manifest.xml? Do you even remember it exists?
> * Say someone makes a "super mega brushpack collection" containing
> several brushpacks from different authors (which may or may not be OK,
> but it depends on the license). I'd lean towards the brushpack authors
> being the ones who require credit and not the collection author
> (though the collection author might warrant some credit for finding
> all the brushpacks).
>
> > * Allowed licenses are
> >         - proprietary
> >         - public domain
> >         - CC-BY-*
>
> Isn't "public domain" kind of spotty in some regions? I thought that's
> why CC-0 was created. IANAL though; things may have changed.

Yeah. it is... We had the same discussion at LGM, but we put in public domain because it seems to have a real 
meaning at least in some places, and in others, like Germany, it gets interpreted according to intention.

In the end, we took http://wiki.mypaint.info/Licensing_policy#Brush_packs as our example.

> > Brushpacks should not be mixed: so no mypaint brushes and gimp brushes in one brushpack.
>
> Depending on how many you download or create, this may or may not be
> annoying. I don't really know the differences, so maybe an artist
> wouldn't bother to create brushpacks for all three, but then again,
> maybe someone would, and it would be simpler to distribute them all in
> one file. Your first use case was a "single, complete package", after
> all.

Well, the idea is, we share the same format and structure so code needs to be written only once, but a pack 
is specific for a particular format. We didn't think it likely that people would create a pack with two krita 
brushes, two mypaint brushes and then some gimp dynamics settings, nor that an artist would go and create a 
set of brushes with the same effects replicated for different apps.


-- 
Boudewijn Rempt
http://www.valdyas.org, http://www.krita.org, http://www.boudewijnrempt.nl