Re: [Gimp-developer] GIMP branched: new stable branch gimp-2-10

[Jehan Pagès <jehan marmottard gmail com>]

Hi!,

On Mon, May 21, 2018 at 3:32 PM, Elle Stone <ellestone ninedegreesbelow com>
wrote:

> Hi All,
>
> On 05/20/2018 05:23 PM, Elle Stone wrote:
>
> > On 05/20/2018 04:31 PM, Michael Natterer wrote:
> >
> > > On Sun, 2018-05-20 at 21:27 +0200, Carmelo DrRaw wrote:
> > >
> > > > What is the recommended branch for nightly development snapshots?
> > > >
> > > > Should one provide snapshots for both master and gimp-2-10?
> > >
> > > That depends on what you want or what these snapshots are for:
> > >
> > > gimp-2-10 is where 2.10.x releases are made from.
> > >
> > > master is bleeding edge.
> Is current git master more or less stable for actual use? For context, I
> > started using GIMP-2.9 back in 2013 and from my point of view it was
> > already sufficiently stable. I don't mind the occasional crash (well,
> > assuming the crash doesn't destroy XCF files that aren't actually open for
> > editing).
>
> Regarding which branch to use for editing (as opposed to which branch(es)
> to provide for users to choose from), over on the gimp-gui mailing list
> Jehan had this to say about the new gimp git master branch, post-merging
> with the gtk+3 branch:
>
> A note: are you actually planning on working with master? Even though
> > for the last few years, master was absolutely production-usable, this is
> > not the case with new master with GTK+3.
> >
> > A lot of stuff is broken on the GTK+3 port. As I write this, I am
> > working on the icon themes for instance which are completely broken.
> > This is not production-ready. If you want a moving target while still
> > stay usable, build "gimp-2-10" branch (which is old master). I predict
> > it will still stay quite active, much more than what the "gimp-2-8"
> > branch used to be since we will continue to backport features when
> > possible/not too hard.
> I had asked on the gimp-gui mailing list about some issues with the
> GTK+3/"new git" branch GTK+3 user interface. Even apart from other stuff
> that might be broken, the current git GIMP master GTK+3 interface is not
> very nice to use, at least not as it appears on my computer. The thread is
> here, if anyone is interested:
>
> https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-gui-list/2018-May/thread.html
> and click on the thread "gimp git master branch user interface".
>
> Personally I've decided to hold off switching to the "new git/GTK+3"
> branch and stick with the 2.10 branch, at least until the user interface
> issues are resolved.
>
> I guess changing toolkits is a necessary evil (eg QT4 to QT5, GTK+2 to
> GTK+3 with GTK+4 already in the wings . . . ). But it uses up a lot of
> developer time and energy, and the benefits of changing toolkits to the
> actual purposes for which we use editing software seem to me to be a bit
> iffy.

Just to be clear, the toolkit update here is not *just* a necessary evil.
It will also be totally awesome, even feature-wise! Without doing much, the
differences are already dramatically awesome IMO, like the simple fact that
input devices (read: graphics tablet) don't have to be activated manually,
nor plugged before running GIMP (hotplug support), etc.
Then we'll be able to add touch support (zoom, pan, rotation of canvas with
fingers).
And much more. This is very exciting.
In any case, the benefits are definitely not "iffy".

Simply to get there, we have to pass through an "unstable" phase, that's
all there is to it. The old master (which became 2.10) has had this phase
too, I can definitely tell so. When I started contributed, back in 2012, it
was absolutely unusable for daily use as well (though you say you were
already using the master build daily back in 2013, but maybe you are less
demanding as us :P). Not only unstable, but also slow as hell. Absolutely
impossible to use for painting.
This is just how software development works.
:-)

Jehan


> For a very insightful developer perspective on a comparable change in
> toolkits, when Krita went from QT4 to QT5, see this link:
>
> https://valdyas.org/fading/software/krita-3-0/
>
> Best,
> Elle
>
> On 20 May 2018, at 21:17, Michael Natterer <mitch gimp org> wrote:
> > > > > Hi everybody,
> > > > >
> > > > > We just branched:
> > > > >
> > > > > Stable GIMP 2.10.x lives on the new gimp-2-10 branch now.
> > > > >
> > > > > The gtk3-port branch has been merged to master, we're
> > > > > back to normal development in master again.
> > > > _______________________________________________
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