[Digikam-devel] Comments on Light Table

[Gilles Caulier]

2007/5/23, Luis De la Parra <lparrab at gmx.net>:
>
>
> Hello Gilles, hi all...
>
> I just saw the light table's video you posted on the planet, so went right
> away and updated my svn-copy of digikam...
>
> wow. first of all: congrats. I think the light-table is coming along very
> nice
> and all the functionality needed for image comparison seems to be there
> already.


Thanks...


the only thing I didn't like is that the navigation between the
> images is kind of difficult/strange... I only tested it for a few minutes,
> so
> I guess you could get used to it. but at least to me it seems to be
> somewhat
> difficult to use.


Hum, are you tested to use Drag & drop between thumbbar and preview panels ?


I don't really see the point in the "navigate by pair" option, with the
> right-image becoming the left-image and the next image becoming the new
> left
> one...  but oh well, I guess I can just not use this function.


This mode is usefull for pro photograph witch have a lot of very similar
pictures taken with a brief of time between shots. In this mode the pictures
are loaded automaticly on Left and Right panels when you clic on a thumbs or
when you use Page up / Page down. But i let's Arn to explain better this
mode : he has the orginal idea to implemente it.


BUT the one
> thing that I find annoying, is that page-up/page-down moves only the
> selection in the thumb-bar, but does not change the image in the table so
> I
> have to go and click the "put it on the right" button. It would be great
> if
> page-up/down (and left/right arrow) would change the image on the table
> automatically. (as it works on "pair-navigation", but only change
> the "selected" one, or the one on the right)


Yes. See my previous comment. Presonaly, i use Drag & drop everywhere. Light
Table support it on everyplace : thumbbar, preview panel, etc. You can drag
& drop items selection between Album GUI window and Light table, or better
directly an Album...


In case you are interested, take a look at this video.
>
> http://idisk.mac.com/george_jardine-Public?view=web
>
> just scroll down and look for  "20070418 Tutorial Podcast - Compare View +
> QD"..
> (NOTE: you have to change the agent-identification in konqueror or use
> firefox)
> It's 24 MB, and has a bit of blah-blah but it is worth it.  it shows the
> light-table in lightroom (called "compare mode") which has probably not
> more
> functionality than digikam, but it is (to me) easier to use.


Ok. I seen. The "Select" picture is locked and the "Candidate" can be
changed in live. I can do it in LT. it's easy. But, try drag  and drop
before. And also look like the zoom level is preserved in LT when you change
the picture in a panel.

Personaly, i'm always using the mouse and never (excepted for some case) the
keyboard. Toogle between mouse and keyboard is a waste of time to work. If
you can do all with mouse why change (:=))). And, we use a GUI, not a text
console with digiKam  (:=)))...

But it's my viewpoints. I'm originaly a Win32 users. I always use mouse...


I also think it would've been better to embed the light table in digikam
> instead of opening a new window. maybe it's just me, because everyone
> seems
> to find this ok (same goes for the editor)


This is my first approach to develop Light Table, but... After some tests, i
have seen than embedding LT on Album GUI will introduce some problems :

1/ The code in Album gui will become more complex and very bloated.
including new code will introduce unstability.
2/ The LT layout is not compatible with Album GUI layout. like you can see,
we have 2 sidebars on LT used to give informations on the Left and Right
panels. This is not possible to do it on Album gui, especially on left side
where we have already a lot of sidebar tabs.
3/ We need the max space to display 2 pictures + thumbbar. Using a separate
window give more possibilities.
4/ The menu is differents in Light Table than Album Gui. It's more clean to
use a separate window for that.

Note than when you close the Light Table window, you don't lost anything.
The window is just catch.  Press ALT+F6 and it will re-appear exactly as
well when it have been closed...

Here i use Xinerama with 3 flats screens to work on pictures. It's very very
very powerfull. I have one screen for album gui, one for LT, one for editor.
Like drag & drop is implemented everywhere, it's really a pleasure to
dispatch images/albums/selections over all windows :

http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/Screenshots/lighttable_v7.png


... and finally... I took me a while to find out that middle-clicking on the
> image changes the mouse to the "hand"-tool to move the picture. is there a
> reason not to use just normal left-click to move the image around?


Well, to be homogenous with the rest of digiKam : image editor, preview mode
from album gui, image plugins preview mode (noise reduction tool for ex.),
etc. All use the middle mouse button to move preview contents.

Like Mik said, only Editor use the left mouse button to process image
selection. In editor, we cannot use it to pan image. Of course, we can use
Left button on the rest of digiKam to pan image,... but, are you tried to
use the pan icon widget on the right bottom corner of editor and preview
panels ?



so. that's it for now.  keep up the good work!


Thanks again (:=))))

Gilles
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