Re: [Gimp-developer] [darktable-dev] Darktable plug-in in GIMP - Darktable for Windows?

[Elle Stone <ellestone ninedegreesbelow com>]

On 04/28/2016 01:09 PM, Ofnuts wrote:
> > Uninstalling darktable does allow the user to use the PhotoFlow raw
> > plug-in. But this doesn't seem like a very user-friendly way to
> > proceed. Also, it only seems to work if GIMP is recompiled and
> > reinstalled *after* darktable has been uninstalled. Or at least delete
> > the config folder, or whatever file in the config folder holds
> > information about the raw plug-ins.
> >
> > So is there some place in the GIMP UI - that so far I haven't been
> > able to find - to choose which raw plug-in to use?
> >
> > If not, are there plans to add a way in the GIMP UI for users to
> > choose which raw plug-in to use?
>
> Perhaps the best solution is to use the stand-alone version of the
> plugins. Of course, if these could save to high-bit-depth XCF directly,
> that would be even nicer.

Using the stand-alone versions of the user's preferred raw processor 
pretty much negates the value of having a plug-in.

A much better solution is to allow users to specify a preferred plug-in, 
perhaps by an option in Preferences.

I know the immediate reaction might be "We don't want to confuse users 
by adding more otions in preferences". But in point of fact users do 
have very strong ideas about which raw processer they prefer to use. So 
they won't be confused.

Before the darktable plug-in was developed and made into a default GIMP 
plug-in, users had a choice of which raw plug-in they installed in the 
plug-ins folder. But that choice no longer works. Right now exercising 
user choice regarding which raw processor plug-in to use is cumbersome 
and non-obvious:

If no version of darktable is installed, the user can still install and 
use a different raw plug-in. But if the user also wants to occasionally 
use darktable, they are out of luck or in for onerous workarounds, 
because as soon as darktable is installed GIMP tries to use the 
darktable plug-in.

If the wrong version of darktable/Lua is installed, GIMP tries (or did 
try, I haven't reinstalled the wrong version of darktable) to use 
darktable, and instead opens the jpeg embedded in the raw file, which is 
much worse than just issuing an error message.

If the right version of darktable/Lua is installed, GIMP uses the 
darktable plug-in and the user has no choice in the matter.

If darktable is then uninstalled and the user tries to go back to using 
their chosen raw processer plug-in, GIMP issues an error message: 
"Failed to execute child process "darktable" (No such file or directory)".

To get past the error message, the user needs to delete the config 
folder, or else figure out which file in the config folder needs to be 
modified. The file to modify is pluginrc.

Here's the text from pluginrc that currently keeps the user from using a 
raw plug-in other than the darktable plug-in, even after uninstalling 
darktable. Delete the following text from pluginrc after you uninstall 
darktable, and you can use a different raw plug-in:

(plug-in-def 
"/home/elle/code/gimpdefault/install/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/file-darktable" 
1461837410
    (proc-def "file-cr2-load" 1
         "Load files in the CR2 raw format via darktable"
         "This plug-in loads files in Canon's raw CR2 format by calling 
darktable."
         "Tobias Ellinghaus"
         "Tobias Ellinghaus"
         "2016"
         "Canon CR2 raw"
         0
        (icon icon-name -1 "")
        (load-proc
            (extension "cr2")
            (magic "0,string,II*\\0\\020\\0\\0\\0CR")
            (mime-type "image/x-canon-cr2")
            (thumb-loader "file-cr2-load-thumb"))
         ""
         3 1
        (proc-arg 0 "run-mode" "The run mode { RUN-INTERACTIVE (0), 
RUN-NONINTERACTIVE (1) }")
        (proc-arg 4 "filename" "The name of the file to load.")
        (proc-arg 4 "raw-filename" "The name entered")
        (proc-arg 13 "image" "Output image"))
    (proc-def "file-cr2-load-thumb" 1
         "Load thumbnail from a CR2 raw image via darktable"
         "This plug-in loads a thumbnail from Canon's raw CR2 images by 
calling darktable-cli."
         "Tobias Ellinghaus"
         "Tobias Ellinghaus"
         "2016"
         ""
         0
        (icon icon-name -1 "")
         ""
         2 3
        (proc-arg 4 "filename" "The name of the file to load")
        (proc-arg 0 "thumb-size" "Preferred thumbnail size")
        (proc-arg 13 "image" "Thumbnail image")
        (proc-arg 0 "image-width" "Width of full-sized image")
        (proc-arg 0 "image-height" "Height of full-sized image"))
    (proc-def "file-nef-load" 1
         "Load files in the NEF raw format via darktable"
         "This plug-in loads files in Nikon's raw NEF format by calling 
darktable."
         "Tobias Ellinghaus"
         "Tobias Ellinghaus"
         "2016"
         "Nikon NEF raw"
         0
        (icon icon-name -1 "")
        (load-proc
            (extension "nef")
            (magic 
"0,string,MM\\0*\\0\\0\\0\\010,0,string,II*\\0\\010\\0\\0\\0")
            (mime-type " image/x-nikon-nef ")
            (thumb-loader "file-nef-load-thumb"))
         ""
         3 1
        (proc-arg 0 "run-mode" "The run mode { RUN-INTERACTIVE (0), 
RUN-NONINTERACTIVE (1) }")
        (proc-arg 4 "filename" "The name of the file to load.")
        (proc-arg 4 "raw-filename" "The name entered")
        (proc-arg 13 "image" "Output image"))
    (proc-def "file-nef-load-thumb" 1
         "Load thumbnail from a NEF raw image via darktable"
         "This plug-in loads a thumbnail from Nikon's raw NEF images by 
calling darktable-cli."
         "Tobias Ellinghaus"
         "Tobias Ellinghaus"
         "2016"
         ""
         0
        (icon icon-name -1 "")
         ""
         2 3
        (proc-arg 4 "filename" "The name of the file to load")
        (proc-arg 0 "thumb-size" "Preferred thumbnail size")
        (proc-arg 13 "image" "Thumbnail image")
        (proc-arg 0 "image-width" "Width of full-sized image")
        (proc-arg 0 "image-height" "Height of full-sized image")))

Best,
Elle