Fleshing up a post-GSoC proposal to improve Krita

[LukasT.dev@gmail.com]

Hello, 

> Hello everybody!.
> 
> For the executive summary, read the end of this e-mail.
> 
> 
> And, unlike the pre-GSoC Pentalis, there are two things where I see a
> lot room for improvement in Krita:
> 1.- Documentation, both for users and developers. I believe myself a
> most fine example of a documenter, modesty apart, so I think that now
> that I know better of how Krita works inside (and outside), I could
> prepare a whole manual for users, or numerous how-tos for aspiring
> newbie developers. I could cover everything to allow even an artist
> inexperienced in programming to make a, say, new paintop or filter, or
> prepare a GUI module.

Boudewijn started to write the manual for users (wohoo). You might want to 
contribute to his work?

> 2.- Speed. But I mean ludicrous speed, I'm talking about GPU
> acceleration. In this part I am not completely sure of how many parts
> of Krita can be GPU accelerated, but most filter functions can surely
> be accelerated; my own, for example, as well as the blur filters. I
> have no knowledge of how to program OpenGL shaders, but if I could
> learn Qt, C++ and Krita, I can learn that.

Yep, cool topic, everybody would love to see it in Krita. 
The application architecture and this things are somehow complicated.
The most best GPU accelerated code we have is Gradient preview.

> I'd like to try to get something like Lukas' community-sponsored
> coding to happen. It's quite obvious that Lukas is a much more
> experienced developer compared to me, so I'm not sure what would be
> the community's reaction to a similar proposal (even if I manage to
> achieve all my goals before the hard pencil's down date, which I'm
> determined to do).

o You are quite new to the community 

Before I came up with the proposal for this kind of a job, I spent
some time with Krita. I managed to show that I'm not working on Krita 
just for money by contributing in my spare time. I was studying and learning 
the Qt/Krita by myself in my spare time. I would propose you to stay around 
Krita and contribute and try second GSoC project maybe. Second GSoC project
helped me to work on different parts of Krita like canvas, tools etc.

o If I could learn

This is problem. I'm not sure if anybody would sponsor you 
so that you could learn. 

o You are not very experienced regarding Krita code

You made a great job so far, but I think you need to spent more time
with us and show us what you are capable of ;)
 
> So I was thinking of a different way to propose it. A twist could be
> to make it goal-oriented instead of time-oriented. I could take a list
> of goals, a wishlist from the community, and work on fulfilling it to
> get a payment 

This is complicated. I work goal-oriented too. I have a list of goals called 
Action Plan I,II. And it is time-oriented of course. Nobody can say, hm..this 
bug is for 10 Euros, and this is for hm 2 Euros. You can't estimate the time
as that's sometimes impossible. You have to try solutions and you fail and try
and fail and weee -- fixed.

Make it short:
Stay with us for a longer time, e.g. come to the sprint, show the community 
what you are capable of, buy us some beers and you might be sponsored 
developer in few years! Nobody will sponsor you for learning the things 
(except Google Summer Of Code :)

Just my 2 cents and 1 Euro :)