Re: Should I release a new GIMP package now.

[Craig Sanders <cas@taz.net.au>]

On 11 Jun 1997, Rob Browning wrote:

> I was holding off releasing a new GIMP package of the development
> versions.  I didn't want to do it if the upstream maintainers didn't
> want me to.  So I tried a couple of times to contact them to see if it
> would be OK (since the unstable versions are far improved over the now
> very old stable version).  They never responded, so I decided to err
> on the side of caution and not switch to unstable.  However, while
> reading a newsgroup I came across the following answer to someone who
> was looking for 0.99.X binaries:
> 
> > Try
> > 
> >	ftp://pc50.zrz.tu-berlin.de/pub/RedHat_mirror/RPMS/
> >
> >	gimp-0.99.8-1.i386.rpm . . . . .  [Apr 21 00:31]    996k
> >	gimp-data-0.99.8-1.i386.rpm. . .  [Apr 21 00:31]   1192k
> >	gimp-devel-0.99.8-1.i386.rpm . .  [Apr 21 00:32]     59k
> 
> So it looks like RedHat's already let the "cat out of the bag" so to
> speak. What do the rest of you think should be done?

I think the "right" thing to do is to wait for the author's approval -
sell them on the idea of using debian as a beta testing group and make use
of our bug tracking system.  Maybe they don't know yet how our
distribution works.

Of course, the "right" thing to do is not always the best. Maybe their  
lack of reply means they don't care, do what you want.                  

Debian's gimp is ancient and the new version is heaps better.  Vast
improvements in user interface (not Motif anymore) and in functionality.
script-fu (a scheme-like scripting language - anything you can do by
hand in gimp you can now do in a script!) is brilliant. and net-fu is
cool too (a web/cgi front-end to gimp & script-fu - generate a neat logo
over the web)


I compiled 0.99.9 around a month ago and it really is much better - if a
bit unstable.  0.99.9 is pretty easy to crash if you're not careful.  I
don't know what 0.99.8 is like.  Most of the crashes seem to be little
loose-ends in the user interface (like you have to click on the close
button in the window rather than on fvwm95's "x" close-window title bar
button) - there's been a few updates to the GTK since i compiled it, so
maybe it's got more stable since then.

Overall, the new gimp seems less stable but a LOT more fun & useful to
work with.


I'd like to see the latest gimp in debian (partly because i don't have the
time to compile again every time there's a new version of Gimp or the
GTK).



BTW, anyone looking for a free GPL GUI toolkit for X should have a look at
GTK, the Gimp Toolkit.  It's great!  Gimp's sort of been broken into two
parts - Gimp itself and the GTK.  While GTK is specifically for Gimp, it's
generic enough to be used for many other programs.  It's GPL freeware, and
best of all, it's under active (enthusiastic!) development.

I know several people on debian-devel have been talking about a free clone
of QT - maybe we should adopt GTK as our 'preferred' GUI toolkit instead?

The GTK home page is at http://www.cs.umn.edu/~amundson/gtk/  - it's even
got documentation online.


One of the GTK authors is writing a web browser using it - "Gzilla".  The
screen shot looked pretty basic, but OK considering it's only version 0.03
or so.  see http://www.levien.com/gzilla/

There's lots of Gimp web pages for anyone who's interested in finding out
more.  Gimp News at http://xach.dorknet.com/gimp/news/index.html is
definitely worth checking out.

And of course, Gimp's home page is at http://www.xcf.berkeley.edu/~gimp/

Everybody loves the gimp!


craig

--
craig sanders
networking consultant                  Available for casual or contract
temporary autonomous zone              system administration tasks.


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