[Gimp-user] HATE the new save vs. export behavior

[Sicofante <forums gimpusers com>]

Count me in too.

Here's my point of view: every sane app out there uses "Save", "Save as..." and "Export" for a conventional 
and now well assumed behaviour:

“Save” means “overwrite the original file”, period (it turns itself into "Save as..." when the file is new 
and has never been saved).

“Save as…” means “save to a new file with a different name and/or format”.

“Export” means “put the contents of the current document in a file of a nature this app isn’t intended to 
handle”. (At the same time “Import” means “bring data from an alien file and convert it into what this app is 
intended to handle”.) For instance, saving a spreadsheet to a text file or a word processing document to a 
non-editable file format (PDF or picture). In the Gimp, Export should be reserved for PDF, ASCII art or any 
other file type that isn’t a picture.

And these are the meanings every well designed app uses and for a good reason: the basis of the WIMP paradigm 
is that once you learn what basic UI idioms mean, you don’t have to relearn them for the next app.

The "overwrite" solution is a sorry workaround for a problem that didn't exist.

Telling users "this app is not for you" is beyond elitist. In the case of the Gimp, which is still vying for 
a place in the professional arena, it's plain ridiculous. Are you guys really trying to put away a big 
portion of your comparatively minuscule user base??? Really???

Finally, may I ask the devs who was asking them for this change? Can you guys point to bugs, forum or mailing 
lists posts asking to please change the old behavior? Can you just prove the need for this beyond your own 
personal preferences or agenda for pushing XCF?

For a long while, FLOSS applications have been accused of ignoring usability issues. Suddenly it seems 
developers are overreacting to that and so we saw the coming of Gnome Shell. Now the GIMP too??? 


> Now you will get nasty-grams telling you that your workflow is "unsafe" or that you should be looking for an 
> alternative to GIMP or that .xcf files are obviously the only choice for "professionals" and just about any 
> other nonsense the developers use to justify what is obviously a self serving design change that they don't 
> know how to back away from without losing face.

> BTW: I agree with your sentiments 100%.

> Red_Chaos1 wrote:
> > Count me on this. The previous behavior of Save/Save As was just fine. Save As did exactly what Export is 
> > doing now, without giving me grief over me format choice. Reason around it and praise the change as the 
> > holy frail if you want, it's still retarded and makes no sense. Save As doesn't overwrite the existing 
> > image, so there is no reason for the program to force this silly assed Export function on me or anyone 
> > else. Avoiding accidental overwrite using Save is avoided with a quick "are you sure?" dialog. Pushing 
> > this whole new system feels like training wheels to me. Assuming I'm not smart enough to not goof my own 
> > work.
> >
> > Nevermind the preview function is apparently broken in the Export dialog. I went to save a small image as 
> > jpg in it, and it tells me the resulting file will be 1.3GB in size. In reality it ends up 193KB. 2.6 
> > didn't have these issues. 2.6 worked in a fashion that made sense. Maybe I'll just go back to 2.6. :-/


-- 
Sicofante (via gimpusers.com)