https://invent.kde.org/graphics/kuickshow and imlib1

[Jonathan Marten]

Marius P <nmariusp1 at gmail.com> writes:
> 1. Can someone build kuickshow? If so, how?
> 2. Can we please archive https://invent.kde.org/graphics/kuickshow ?

Yes, it builds for me here - again with Gentoo.  That distro packages
imlib1 separately from imlib2 so they can be coinstalled and appears to
have no plans to remove it, although as you say imlib1 has not been
updated since 2004.

But it still works, even for new image formats(e.g. WebP), and Kuickshow
is great as a fast and uncluttered image viewer.  Yes, Gwenview has lots
more features for browsing and viewing image collections, but sometimes
all that is needed is a quick look.  So I'd prefer to see Kuickshow
still available even if it has to be moved to unmaintained.

> In fact kuickshow is a wrapper around imlib1/imlibwidget.cpp.

Having looked again at the source it doesn't actually seem to use imlib
for much at all - image loading and transformation yes, but it doesn't
use the library for displaying the image, only raw X11.  (Which means
that Kuickshow as it is now will never work on Wayland).

So it could be made future proof by either porting to imlib2, which
wouldn't involve very much work (only 4 source files actually call
imlib), or even eliminating both X11 and imlib and using the
corresponding Qt facilities instead (more work, but removes a
dependency).  Hopefully Kuickshow will live on!

-- 
Jonathan Marten                         http://www.keelhaul.me.uk
Twickenham, UK                          jjm2 at keelhaul.me.uk