Re: [Gimp-developer] Bring back normal handling of other file formats

["Guillermo Espertino (Gez)" <gespertino gmail com>]

El 14/06/12 21:19, Graeme Gill escribió:
> "Safe" is a value judgement. The assumption being made is that preserving
> every possible detail that gimp can create overrides every other consideration.
>
> Many users will not agree that this is the case in every or even most situations.
> If they are opening a .jpg file, it's already in a lossy format, so it's quite
> possible (even probable) that they are happy if further loss occurs. If they open
> a .tiff, then they may be quite happy to save just what a .tiff will hold
> (ie. all the pixel values), and not care about what other stuff gimp has
> invented internally.
>
> Certainly the utility of an image manipulation program seems impaired if
> it can't open/edit/save an image without jumping through hoops.

Yes, but as soon as you created an extra layer, a complex selection, 
channel or any other feature that is only saved in XCF files, saving to 
those formats becomes a potentially dangerous procedure.
GIMP has something awesome that's also dangerous: a feature that saves 
(now exports) to the right format by detecting the extension used.
That feature is extremely handy, but in my experience it proved to be 
the source of many headaches.
A simple example: Your client sent you a photo for a brochure in jpg 
format, you have to create a mask using bezier curves and layers masks 
and save the resulting image as PNG with transparent background.
You create those complex beziers, you create several layers with masks 
and your work is done. Phone rings, you get distracted buy your muscle 
memory dictates that you have to save your work. Hit CTRL+S, accept the 
annoying popup and close GIMP.
Result: Now you have a flattened JPG with a white background, no more 
masks, no more bezier curves, nada.
I can't count how many times I did that accidentally, and that's 
something that won't happen again with the new workflow.
It takes some time to rewrite the muscle memory and get used, but it 
certainly pays back.
That being said, I do agree that the overwrite function is somewhat odd 
(it hasn't a default keystroke, it disappears once you used it and 
becomes export). I guess that could be better, but I can't tell how.
In my opinion the problem isn't the save vs. export function. Is the 
overwrite function. Probably it only needs to be a permanent option and 
a default shortcut and that's it.

Gez.