[Digikam-users] Timeline question, plus first impressions of 0.9.3 - delighted!

[elle stone]

Hi, all.  I am new to Linux and new to digikam.  I just spent the last two
days trying to (and finally succeeding in) installing digikam 0.9.3 from
source on ubuntu gutsy.  My "ubuntu" installation is not gnome, but rather a
minimal command line install with icewm as my "desktop" and other stuff
added as needed/wanted.

First impressions, I am absolutely delighted with digikam.  In the world of
windows I've trialed a great many image management programs and image
editing programs.  I was looking to use digikam to rate and label images and
input initial iptc data.  But I read through the documentation and was
really impressed with the editing capabilities.  Now I haven't actually
edited any pictures yet! but I played around - very clean interface - love
the curves - I wish photoshop's curve adjustment were that nice.  And your
various noise and focus algorithms, pretty sophisticated stuff.  Images load
up very quickly, look sharp on the monitor.  The layout of the main window
is very clean and useable.  I getting the feeling that there's some really
good, good programmers working on digikam.  

So here is my timeline question/comment:  First, I love the timeline.  My
directory structure is by year/month/day/ with all images named by
date_time_filenumber.  But it is still really delightful to see the calendar
and see exactly when I was and wasn't taking pictures.  Somehow that
calendar is just so much more human and inviting than my bare directory
structure.

So I've been playing around with digikam, using a small branch of my photo
directory copied over to my home directory (don't want to turn an unknown
application loose on my permanent directory structure until I know exactly
how it will work).  I entered a small bit of data into the IPTC of one
photograph, taken November 11, 2007.  I updated the Metadata database (under
Tools).  I wanted to verify that the data was indeed copied into the iptc
field, rather than only being in digikam's database.  It was indeed written
to the iptc.  

However, now the photograph is showing up on the timeline on January 19,
2008, the date the iptc was modified, rather than Nov. 11, 2007, the date it
was taken.  Now this is just my own opinion, but I was surprised - I just
don't think adding copyright information or a tag to a picture is a good
reason for it to be assigned to a date on a timeline different from its
creation date.

So I opened a different picture and did a quick edit and saved it under the
same name.  It appears on the timeline exactly when I would expect, that is,
exactly where it was pre-edit, on the creation date.  So to double-check, I
added copyright information to another picture - it moved on the timeline
from the date taken to the date I changed the copyright information in iptc
and updated the metadata. 

Is this a bug?  or a feature?  or a problem with this newbie's perhaps not
so perfect attempt at installing from source?  or maybe even user error?

Elle



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