Re: Nice review!

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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.

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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

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

An obvious question for KDE4:

What about Windows port?

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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

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