[KPhotoAlbum] Suggestion: Relations between images

[Michael J Gruber]

Paul Fleischer venit, vidit, dixit 31.01.2008 22:06:
> Hi again,
> 
> I have been silent for a while, but I'm still here and still thinking
> about image groups/hierarchies. Having played around with my own two
> patches I somewhat got in doubt whether the approaches in them is the
> most suitable. So, I'll spend some time thinking rather than coding. I
> have come up with a new shiny concept: RELATIONS. Now, let me start by

I like it, too ;)

Regarding the inheritance, I would suggest that a "derived" image can 
inherit properties (i.e.: Categories) from its source when they are not 
set. For example, categorising raw files makes more sense then 
categorising derived jpg's which may change (along with their md5) when 
you change your mind or your raw conversion tool. On the other hand, one 
usually browses the derived jpg's and wants to have category information 
right there.

The same applies to panos derived from multiple exposures, as well as to 
members in a sequence (such as Jespers dog-tail-chase), where the source 
would be the previous image in a sequence (so that you need to 
categorize only the first one).

I think, in the end it comes down to the structure of an acyclic 
directed graph. "directed" gives you the source/target concept, which 
can implement raw/jpg, pano item/pano, sequence item/sequence successor 
and others. "acyclic" makes inheritance well defined.

The relation types would serve as different labels for the same 
underlying concept (just like all categories rely on the same concept), 
with possibly different defaults for things like "hide all but left-most 
descendant", "inherit categories downward/upwards", icon etc.

Michael