Re: Nice review!

faq
flatforty
contribute
subscribe
configure
search
rdf

main
parent
thread

Re: Nice review!
by sebas on Monday 31/Mar/2008, @08:13

Rocking! Digikam is one of my favourite applications. Thanks for getting it where it is. Keep up the good work, i'm already looking forward to the KDE4 port.

Related Links

·   Articles on Developer
·   Also by sebas
·   Contact author

The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whomever posted them.
( Reply )

Re: Nice review!
by Anon on Monday 31/Mar/2008, @08:38

Is the digikam version for KDE4 already usable? I mean, can I loose photos or data with it, or is this unlikely? I can live with missing functionality and the occasional crash - you're getting used to this with KDE4 ;))). But it would be great to switch to a native KDE4 app for photo management.

Digikam, Amarok and k3b are my favorite apps, and unfortunately all those are not out for KDE4 yet.

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: Nice review!
by Gilles Caulier on Monday 31/Mar/2008, @12:11

We have planed to release 0.10.0 for septemeber, if all is fine.

Regression tests take a while. I wouldn't provide a "stable" release full of bug.

Like you can see, porting a Qt3/KDE3 application like digiKam, K3b or Amarok to Qt4/KDE4 is not a simple task. All must be re-tested, some parts re-written, because changes in API are huge. The advantages is to review all old codes and to make factorization, re-writting, simplifications and improvements.

digiKam still in alpha. Do not use it in production yet, at least until first 0.10.0 release candidate.

There is also kipi-plugins and all shared libraries where we have working hard me and Marcel to port in native QT4/KDE4 :

- libkdcraw (including now 16 bits color depth auto-gamma/auto white balance)
- libexiv2 (including now full XMP metadata support)
- libkipi (partially re-written and cleaned).
- 7 kipi-plugins fully ported bu me (SendImages, RAWConverter, JPEGLossLess, FlashExport, TimeAdjust, MetadataEdit, and AcquireImage).

I can post here few screenshots of digiKam for KDE4 in action:

http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/Screenshots/newsearchwindow.png

==> the new Search tool make by Marcel. It's not yet complete, but it's planed to finalize this interface for beta1. Like you can see, a big work have been done to make a clean interface without any database-sql requests. It's more users friendly. Note than Database schema have been re-written and improved to include severals photo metadata informations. For ex, GPS info are now stored in DB: all read-only files can be geo-localized.

http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/Screenshots/thumbbarwithpreviewmode.png
http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/Screenshots/FullColorThemeSupport/thumbbarineditor.png

==> In digiKam for KDE4, thumbnail kio-slave is diseapears. All thumbs are now generated using multi-threading (another part implemented by Marcel)
If you have already played with Showfoto, you have certainly seen a thumbbar. KDE3 implementation use kioslave without memory cache mechanism. It's slow.
The new one is more faster and can be included as well everywhere in digiKam without to decrease performance. I have included thumbbar in Image Editor (F4) and in AlbumGUI with preview mode (F3). A same cache is used everywhere.

http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/Screenshots/digikam_for_KDE4_with_XMP_metadata_support.png
http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/Screenshots/MetadataEditor/

==> in KDE4, XMP is supported everywhere. I have improved the MetadataEditor kipi-plugin in this way and re-writted all dialog pages to be more user friendly, and to be homogenous with others tools available under MAcOS-X or Win32.

http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/Screenshots/digikamKDE4_under_MACOSX.png

==> Gutavo Boiko, have ported several code in digiKam to compile fine in native under MACOS-X.

http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/Screenshots/newkipiimagecollectionselectorwidgetKDE4.png

==> With KDE4, I have fixed libkipi to become a pure image collection interface: no widget, no dialogs, no translation. All gui components must be re-implemented in kipi-host using the right model/view implementation. For digiKam, I have already implemented all. The advantage is really visible here: the treeview used for all phisical/virtual albums in digiKam can be used as well with all kipi-plugins (KDE3 only provide a flat albums list, not really suitable).

http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/Screenshots/gpstracklisteditor.png

==> In KDE4, I have implemented a new tool to edit GPS track list of several images at the same time. This tool use Googlemaps, but there is a plan to use marble if necessary, especialy when users do not have a network access.

http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/Screenshots/digikamKDE4_15.png

==> With KDE4, multiple root album path is supported, including removable medias and network repositories. Now, there is no problem to use digiKam with a NFS server to host your images.

http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/Screenshots/FullColorThemeSupport/digikam0.10.0.png
http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/Screenshots/FullColorThemeSupport/fullcolortheme6.png

==> Full color theme interface: this is also implemented in KDE3. Now color schemes are applied everywhere in GUI. With black themes (my preferred), digiKam sound like a pro-software (:=)))...

http://digikam3rdparty.free.fr/Screenshots/RAW16bitsAutogamma

==> This is a very important feature : auto-gamma and auto-white balance with all RAW file format using 16 bits color depth ! Before, 16 bits color depth support nequire to use color management to have a suitable image in editor. Without CM, you have a black hole image... This is duing a limitation from dcraw which do not provide an homogenous interface between 8 bits and 16 bits color depth workflow.

With these screenshots, you can compare a same RAW image decoded:

- On the left by dcraw in 8 bits color depth and converted to PNG. Auto-gamma and auto white balance is performed automatically by dcraw.

- On the middle by digiKam in 16 bits color depth using libkdcraw with a dedicaced auto-gamma and auto-WB performed in digiKam core.

- On the right by the LightZone (:=)))... Like you can see, digiKam is not too bad!

digiKam is now able to play with all RAW images in 16 bits color depth without to use a complex Color Management settings: RAW pictures can be handled like JPEG file in your workflow. This way is used by LightZone for ex, and it's a very productive and fast. Note than it's also implemented in KDE3...

And i would remember to all than digiKam have been the first suitable opensource photo-management program which support 16 bits color depth pictures as well ! Gimp, f-spot do not support it ! Cinepaint can do it, but seriously, who will use it to play with pictures ? Of course we have krita now to work with layers... digiKam+krita == the perfect photo suite (:=)))

It's time now fpr me to close this file and to return in underground hacking-world...

Gilles Caulier

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: Nice review!
by m. on Monday 31/Mar/2008, @13:08

An obvious question for KDE4:

What about Windows port?

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: Nice review!
by Gilles Caulier on Monday 31/Mar/2008, @13:36

In theory, a Windows port must compile, but personnaly i have not yet tried... I'm too busy with current Linux implementation to finalize.

All contributions are welcome to report compilation problems under Windows...

Gilles Caulier

[ Reply To This | View ]

Re: Nice review!
by Simon on Monday 31/Mar/2008, @09:28

Yep, digikam is great and has improved hugely over the last year or so. Thanks Giles (+ the other developers)

[ Reply To This | View ]

The Fine Print: The previous comments are owned by whomever posted them.
( Reply )


		"Feature freeze: You're allowed to add new bugs, but no new features." -- Richard J. Moore
KDE®, "K Desktop Environment", "KDE Dot News", "got the dot?" and the KDE Logo® are trademarks or registered trademarks of KDE e.V. in the European Union, the United States and other countries. All other trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Comments are owned by the poster. The rest: Copyright © 2000-2008 KDE e.V. for The KDE Project. For further information or comments on this site, please contact the Webmaster.