Re: [gthumb-list] gthumb feedback

[Jef Driesen <jefdriesen hotmail com>]

On 24/02/10 16:28, Paolo Bacchilega wrote:
> Jef Driesen ha scritto:
> > 1. Extension manager and preferences
> >
> > Is there a good reason why the extension manager is a separate window?
> > How about moving it to a new tab in the preference dialog (like gedit
> > does)?
> >
> > Extension preferences are not always handled consistently. Some
> > extensions have their own preferences dialog, while others seem to
> > integrate into the main preferences dialog. The importer has a
> > preference dialog that is only accessible from the import window itself.
>
> in order to make the preferences dialog really useful to the user it
> shouldn't be overfilled with a lot of options, in the extensions dialog
> there are very technical preferences such as the ability to keep in sync
> the comments with the embedded metadata.  The importer preferences are
> really useful only when the user is going to import files.

I didn't mean that all plugin options should go into the preferences 
dialog. It's fine to have separate preferences dialogs for each plugin, 
but it would be nice if the plugin dialog itself would be integrated as 
a new tab into the main preferences dialog. Because that's the place 
where I expect to configure gthumb, and enabling/disabling plugins is 
part of that workflow.

For the importer preferences, my idea was that it would be nice if you 
could also configure the plugin from the extension dialog, because 
that's where you can configure all other plugins. Accessing the settings 
directly from the importer dialog is a handy shortcut of course.

> > 2. Tools toolbar button
> >
> > When clicking the Tools toolbar button, a dropdown menu is shown. I
> > think it would be a good idea to add a dropdown arrow to this button
> > to indicate that.

When replacing the GthToggleMenuToolButton (btw what is the purpose of 
this custom widget?) with a GtkMenuToolButton, both the icon and the 
dropdown arrow are clickable. What should happen when you click the 
icon? Show the personalize dialog, execute the most recent used tool 
again (in which case the icon may need to show that tool), or even 
something else?

> > 4. File properties
> >
> > I would rename the metadata edit dialog to the more general
> > properties. I think people are more familiar with that name, and I can
> > image there are other uses for that dialog (plugins) that are not
> > directly related to the metadata.
> >
> > As a photographer, I like to have immediate access to the photographic
> > settings (aperture, shutter, iso, etc). Maybe we could provide a
> > summary view of the most important settings, along with a detailed
> > view that shows everything. Both in the metadata/properties dialog and
> > the properties side pane. Eog does that with a "Metadata" tab and
> > "Details" tab in its Properties dialog, and it works really well for
> > me. (Note that being able to customize the caption in browser mode is
> > already a very nice feature!)
>
> The metadata dialog is used the edit the metadata while the properties
> pane for viewing it.  The aperture, shutter and other are the first in
> the "Exif Conditions" category, maybe we can move the "Exif Conditions"
> category before "Exif General" to make it more visible.

For me, the major problem is that the interesting info (aperture, 
shutter, iso, etc) is quite limited. But it's hard to locate between the 
other metadata because there is so many of it. I'm not saying that the 
full metadata should be removed (definitely not), but having a summary 
view would help a lot. At the moment, the gthumb sidebar has a sidepane 
with a combobox which offers only a "Properties" options. We could use 
this combobox to provide different types of views (maybe even 
customizable ones?)

To see what I mean, have a look at this screenshot from Adobe Lightroom, 
which allows you to choose between different views in it's sidebar:

http://www.photo-info.co.nz/files/Lightroom-EXIF.jpg

Or this one from Adobe Bridge, which has a graphical view at the top 
with the aperture, iso, etc:

http://www.theis.dk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/ScreenShot042.jpg

> > 5. Camera import
> >
> > How about making the importer a little smarter by pre-selecting
> > images? I don't know what is technically possible, but my suggestion
> > is to remember the timestamp of the last import (maybe we need to
> > store one timestamp for each import source here). During the next
> > import, we can then pre-select all images that are newer than this
> > timestamp. This would save some time when users are keeping their
> > photos on the camera for a while. Downloading all images again, or
> > having to locate the new photos manually can be very inconvenient.
>
> I think this is doable

Great!