[Digikam-devel] About dcraw, libufraw, libopenraw and libkdcraw

[Leopold Palomo Avellaneda]

Dear people,

first of all I'm sorry for write you with also cc to some list. I will try to 
be brief. I'm an advocate of the free software and usually I use kde and 
debian. I'm a enthusiast of the photography and I normally shot in raw with 
my camera.

It's to me a bit surprising (but understandable) that almost _all_ the free 
software projects use the dcraw from Mr. Coffin. However, Mr. Coffin doesn't 
want to make dcraw as a library. In general, all the projects modify the 
dcraw code or encapsulate it in some kind of library.

I like the ideas from Mr. Figuière to develop a library to use in the free 
software projects for the raw. But, to begin a new library from scratch, (or 
I understand that it have been developed in this manner) is a lot of work. 
However, maybe it's the most easy thing, do it your self from zero.

Since some time ago I use ufraw to convert my photos to something viewable. I 
like very much Mr. Fuchs application and I think that he have designed and 
developed a very good application to convert raw files. Also, I think that 
the idea to have some kind of job ticket, or convert options that he propose 
in the ufraw xml file it's a very good idea. 

I proposed to Mr. Fuchs to try to make the ufraw file description (xml) 
as "standardized" file format in the way that you could use it in any 
application having the same (or very similar) results. Mr. Fuchs told me that 
one way to do it is encapsulate ufraw in a library. 

I don't use digikam but I like very much this application. Also, I like the qt 
and the kde project. I have been a bit surprised when today looking on the 
blog of digikam I have been an entry about the libkdcraw. However, I have 
seen that has a dependency with the kdelibs, as normal as a kde lib.

After this introduction I would like to ask you if it would be possible that 
_all_ of you will try to collaborate as possible as you can. For example, I 
respect very much the ideas of Mr. Coffin, but:

- what do you think if the other people send you little modifications of the 
dcraw in the manner to help it to integrate in a library? (I have in mind the 
little  modification that the libkdcraw have to do obtain the model and 
camera

- Mr. Wiesweg and Mr. Caulier (digikam) what do you think to modify libkdcraw 
to avoid any dependency of qt or kde in the way that the gnome team 
(remember, I use kde!!!! ;-) ) or whatever program could use it?

- Mr. Fuchs, what do you think to begin to modify ufraw in a way that use  
this possible library or another in common?

- Mr. Figuière what do you think about to make libopenraw in a similar way or 
compatible, or whatever?

I think that it could be more interesting to have some kind of libraw (the 
idea of libopenraw), with all the features that have ufraw, easily integrated 
in kde and gnome, probably pure c++, or minor dependencies (exif ...) and 
multi-platform  with also some kind of public xml (as ufraw file format) to 
convert (adjust) any raw to something desirable, based in dcraw than having: 
dcraw + libopenraw + ufraw (libufraw) + libkdcraw?

Please think about it.

Best regards,

Leo

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