• @pastermil@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    I don’t want to sound ungrateful to their earnest effort, but at this point, GIMP3 is like the running joke of the open source world.

    • @LeFantome@programming.dev
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      97 months ago

      Not sure why the downvotes. The good news is that we should be very close to the end of that with GIMP 3 out very soon.

      Earlier in the year they announced that it was expected in July or so. I hold out hope that they at least get it out this year. Once it is out, all will be forgieven. Let’s hope that we do not see as long of a delay next time.

      • @azertyfun@sh.itjust.works
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        97 months ago

        I’ve read the exact same comment a year ago, and the year before, and probably the year before that tbh.

        So I’ll say what I always say; I’ll believe it when I see it.

        • A Basil Plant
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          7 months ago

          https://www.gimp.org/news/2024/05/05/gimp-2-10-38-released/

          This (possibly last) GIMP 2 stable release brings much-requested backports from GTK3, including improved support for tablets on Windows. A number of bug fixes and minor improvements are also included in this release.

          If the release says that this is possibly the last GIMP2 stable release, it feels like GIMP3 is actually on its way. I understand your cynicism, but I’d be more optimistic this time around.

      • @ProtonBadger@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        I didn’t downvote but for a lot of the time the core devs were mostly 1-2 ppl working some evenings because they have dayjobs/lives. They released many updates to 2.10, and they’re often feature releases not just bugfix releases. At the same time they almost completely rewrote the backend to use a new graphics library GEGL, which they also wrote from scratch. As for GIMP 3 they have also redone a lot under the hood to allow for easier development of new features moving forward and custom old GTK widgets updating to GTK3 required rearchitecturing as they work fundamentally differently from modern GTK3/4 versions.

        So that’s why I don’t joke, there’s also nothing to forgive. Let’s hope that GIMP 3 will get more interest from devs with its more modern and capable architecture.

    • @blurg@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      The “running joke” used by millions for serious and playful projects? [edited for punctuation]

    • federalreverse-old
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      7 months ago

      GTK is a UI toolkit, i.e. a piece of software that draws uniform-looking buttons and scrollbars and the like.

      GTK used to stand for “GIMP toolkit” but GTK and GIMP development are now entirely separate, so much so, in fact, that 13 years after the release of GTK 3 and 3 years after the release of GTK 4, GIMP still hasn’t upgraded to either.

      • GIMP’s GTK3 port was finished several months ago. What remains to be done for GIMP 3.0 is bug-fixing and porting to the new Plug-in API.

        The best way to upgrade to GTK4 is to upgrade to GTK3 first. There was some talk about working on GTK4 soon after GIMP 3.0 is out, but whether that will happen or not is uncertain.

        • @knexcar@lemmy.world
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          27 months ago

          Wait what’s the point of backporting to GTK2 then? And why should I as an end user care? Will it make the UI nicer?

          • GIMP has been releasing two versions for several years. First, the Stable release, which is the 2.10.x series. Second, the development release, which is the 2.99.x series, which is where the GTK3 work has been done. The work from the development release will culminate in the Stable release reaching 3.0. GIMP will continue to support 2.10.x for some time after 3.0 becomes stable, but eventually they will stop supporting it.

            Most of the work right now is focused on the development release and getting GIMP 3.0 stable and ready for release, but they’re still doing a little more work to tide users over until 3.0 is out. If you’re curious how work on 3.0 is going: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/milestones/27#tab-issues

            GTK3 brings Wayland support among other features and yes, it looks nicer. GTK3 is still maintained while GTK2 has been obsoleted, which means bug fixes are still landing. Once they’re at GTK3, that makes it much easier to move to GTK4, which brings even better Wayland support (i.e. color management will actually be possible) and a much better UI in my opinion.

      • lemmyvore
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        -17 months ago

        Because it doesn’t need anything in GTK 3 and 4. They’re either cosmetic changes or UX changes and Gimp has no reason to adopt either.

        • federalreverse-old
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          67 months ago

          GIMP has had a GTK 3 port in development for years. They just lack the developer bandwidth to finish it. And in general, using EOLed libraries for your very popular application is not great, not for security, not for usability, and not for compatibility with modern systems.

          • lemmyvore
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            -17 months ago

            When the widget toolkit needs explicit and direct support for the graphics server you’re doing something very wrong.

            • @unique_hemp@discuss.tchncs.de
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              57 months ago

              The way I see it, GTK is really a framework for building cross-platform GUI apps. Then handling display server compatibility makes perfect sense to me.

              If this was meant to be a dig at Wayland, I’m pretty sure GTK also needs explicit and direct support for X11, Windows and MacOS. It just already exists.

              • lemmyvore
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                17 months ago

                It’s not a dig at Wayland. You really don’t want to have to add specific support for the OS directly in your widget library. There should be an abstraction layer in-between that deals with that. If that layer had been there they wouldn’t have to rewrite the whole thing.

  • @merthyr1831@lemmy.world
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    17 months ago

    I pretty much avoid GIMP now. It became a pity download years ago, but now I’m just not bothering to wait for them to bring the software to the current decade.

    Alternatives exist like Photopea, which even with a quarter of the screen covered in ads is way more performant, let alone productive.

    Not to blame the maintainers, it seems like they’ve been left with a mess of spaghetti and no one is willing to help out. I can’t say I’m surprised it’s taken so long.

        • Julian
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          17 months ago

          huh, I’ve never heard that term before. Idk if that makes the name ableist though, since it clearly means something else, unlike the switch from master to main for git, where that name was used in the same way as the offensive context. Also the word “gimp” has another more well-known meaning… which I guess isn’t that much better. Yeah idk maybe they should change the name lol.