Re: [Gimp-developer] Suggestd enhancement

[Adalbert Hanßen <Adalbert Hanssen gmx de>]

Am 23.07.20 um 16:54 schrieb Shlomi Fish:
> Hi Adalbert!
>
> On Thu, 23 Jul 2020 13:23:25 +0200
> Adalbert Hanßen <Adalbert Hanssen gmx de> wrote:
>
> > Currently you get the option Edit>Paste as>... even if no image is on teh
> > clipboard. Then it takes awfully long untill Gimp tells that there is no
> > image to be pasted on the clipboard.
> I've checked this, and GIMP responded instantly with that error message box, on
> my mageia v8 x86-64 system with gimp 2.10.20 and running kde plasma5 and
> klipper (with 8 GB of RAM).
>
> So it seems like a local issue on your end. Can you try to see if it happens in
> a new unix user?
I encountered the problem with GIMP 2.8.22 which I preferred to use because GIMP 2.10 came as a snap 
installation and that did not cooperate with my delayed xfce4-screenshooter starter

xfce4-screenshooter -fmd 7 -o gimp

(unfortunately I use version 1.8.2 of xfce4-screenshooter which does not allow to set the output directory 
and the standard output directory /tmp is not available in the snap-installed GiIMP 2.10.)

Now I realized that I can use the snap installed version of GIMP in parallel to the installed 2.8.22. Now put 
some text onto the clipboard and I realized that your observation is right. I do not have klipper installed 
on my computer. I got the message "die Zwischenablage enthält keine Bilddaten, die eingefügt werden können" 
(no image data on the clipboard).

However this might have been not the right test since the older version does the same! You may be right, that

xfce4-screenshooter -crm

sometimes does not put an image onto the clipboard although I select a rectangular part of the screen. I'll 
come back to that when I have an example which does not work wit 2.8.22 but does with 1.10.20 (or does not 
work with that one).

> > This happens to me sometimes when I want to make a screenshot but my
> > screenshot tool doesn't do that.
> >
> > I would suggest that Gimp check if there is something to paste before
> > offering any paste option and grey them out if there is no pastable image on
> > the clipboard.
> The problem with greying out menu options is that often the user is unable to
> tell why they are greyed out, and what to do to reenable them. So it will be a
> usability issue.
>
> Furthermore, GIMP will need to query the clipboard before displaying the
> menubar or menu which will likely also be time consuming on your end.
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_ain't_no_such_thing_as_a_free_lunch
Of course one would have to enquire the type of stuff on the clipboard. But I think that will be much faster 
than what GIMP currently does until it presents the error message. Apparently if you had an image on the 
clipboard and then copy some text to it, then GIMP still pastes the image. So the clipboard in Xubuntu seems 
to be a bit more complicated than I thought before. I don't know for sure what GIMP really does if the 
content of the clipboard is "no graphics object", like some text or some table or a pointer to an file which 
is not an image... Those who are prepared to debug GIMP might take a look what happens until GIMP finally 
throws in the towel because there is no graphics on the clipboard. I guess that's much more work until it 
finally throws and recovers from such an event and therefore my idea was that it is better to check that 
earlier. But perhaps just that already has happened between 2.8.22 and 2.10.20.
> > By the way: Is there anythingon teh Linux operating system level which shows
> > me what is on the clipboard? I mean other than going to an app and try to
> > paste whatever is thre and see what happens?
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klipper can do it here, and there may be other
> clipboard managers which can as well. Note that "operating system level" may
> refer to several layers of kernel code, kernel modules, and processes of
> various privileges on Linux, and they often can be replaced by
> existing or hypothetical alternatives.
>
> > _______________________________________________
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> > List address:    gimp-developer-list gnome org
> > List membership: https://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer-list
> > List archives:   https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list

Shlomi,

thank you for your answer.

Kind regards

Adalbert Hanßen