Tools

[Boudewijn Rempt]

On Friday 07 November 2003 01:15, Patrick Julien wrote:

>
> Actually, I'm still not sure the time has come for tools.  I want to make
> them parts or whatever is needed to make them dynamically loadable.
>

Making and maintaining tools that work makes it a lot easier to keep the rest
of Krita tested. It also shows what's really needed to efficiently implement 
(in the sense that it's possible to implement a tool with a minimum of 
effort). And it might bring up issues with the rest of the system. Without 
working tools, Krita is just a 2d library with a viewer -- it's the 
interactivity that makes the difference. And of course, if interested people 
check Krita out, compile and cannot make a single mark on an image they'll -- 
almost :-) -- never get get interested enough to work on it.

So I'd say, let the parts idea ripen, and in the meantime let's have at least 
one decent brush. A brush tests: colours, gradients, patterns, brushes, 
compositing, interactive performance, undo/redo, user interface -- that 
should keep the rest of Krita on the straight and narrow.

> You had many gripes about the ui of Krita, if you feel like making
> improvements there, it might be a better investement for the next week or
> so.

Yes, well, I think Krita doesn't look very attractive right now, but I really 
want that brush :-). On the other hand, a nice and glitzy interface would 
help, too. I'll see what grabs me next. Isn't there something in KDE that 
loads .ui files and creates a dialog dynamically -- that would help with the 
dialog designs, and especially with the tool properties dialogs.

> So, basically, after tonight, I still have the ClipboardMgr thing, tool
> memento and dynamically load them.

Life is so easy with GNUStep or OS X as far as dynamic loading of things like 
tools is concerned. Or even with Java. Just make a bundle, or an archive that 
contains the code, the definitions for the user interface and the relevant 
artwork. I've read the various kparts tutorials, but I'm not sure how the 
packaging of all these bits is handled -- and most of them are about adding a 
new view, while we need only one pesky icon in a toolbox, a dialog and then 
need to interact with the current view.

>
> I will then fix paste and move tools, only color picker works right now. 
> In any case, not sure how much time this will take since I'm really busy
> and just got my Longhorn preview from my msdn subscription to play with
> also. Ahh, if only they we're 48 hours in a day :)
>

Yes... Or fourteen days to a week. I usually have time to hack a bit on 
Wednesday evenings and Saturday afternoons, but not this week. On the plus 
side, I don't have to play with Longhorn -- my toy of the week is Sonic's MQ 
and ESB cd. And Gooch and Gooch on Non-photorealistic rendering came in, but
it isn't as useful as I hoped. Lots of references, but mostly to papers I had 
already read, and not much about simulating artists materials for the artist. 
And that's what I want -- an application that an artist can sit behind, and 
just work.

-- 
Boudewijn Rempt | http://www.valdyas.org/index2.html
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 198 bytes
Desc: signature
Url : http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kimageshop/attachments/20031107/fd9a20ca/attachment.pgp