Re: [Gimp-developer] Quick-edit workflow

[Akkana Peck <akkana shallowsky com>]

peter sikking writes:
> what we were missing was a quick succession of ctrl shortcuts
> (cmd on mac) that close unsaved images.
>
> I worked on it with mitch and it is now in git.
>
> so now everyone can press ctrl-W to close a document, keep
> the finger on the ctrl and press ctrl-D in the dialog to
> Discard changes.
[ ... ]
> - yes, also works for Quit and Close all
> - yes, mitch is back-porting it to 2.8, see next release

Nice! I've lost work a couple of times with the new model,
and the Quit dialog solves that problem.

It took me a few minutes to learn how to read it -- it says

[filename.png](imported)-N

if I've modified the image and never exported;

[filename.png](overwritten)-N

if I've exported in the past but not since the last change; and

[filename.png](overwritten)-N
Exported to /path/to/filename.png

if it's safe and has been exported since the last change.  So it
looks like the important thing is whether the extra "Exported to..."
line is there. It's great to have that information.

> > Sorry, I didn't notice the "File > Overwrite <filename.png>" menu option.
> > Perhaps a keyboard shortcut for the same would be nice.
>
> I thought about that for a long time when I wrote the spec.
[ ... ]
> - I wanted to use the inertia of having to do the effort of
>  setting your own shortcut to make you think: if really, really
>  overwrite _is_ your primary way of working and important
>  enough to set it.

I've found that the new model makes me stop and think every time
I save or export anything. For one thing, I'm still confused about
the difference between Export... and Export to -- they seem to do
the same thing even though one has a ... and the other doesn't, they
have different shortcuts, and one of them isn't always available.
And I can never remember in any given session which images can use
Overwrite versus which ones need an Export... or Export to, so I no
longer trust any save/export shortcut to be the right one, and
almost always end up going to the menus instead.

A shortcut for Overwrite would just add the uncertainty of
"What if this image doesn't have a file associated with it yet?" --
in which case Overwrite silently does nothing, and you might think
you've exported when you really haven't, and lose your work.

Anyway, the new Quit dialog will help in guarding against data loss
from export mistakes like that. So thanks!

        ...Akkana