Digikam 0.6 Released

After nearly one and half years of development Digikam 0.6 and its plugin package have been released. Digikam is a simple digital photo management application which makes importing and organizing digital photos a "snap". The photos can be organized in albums which are automatically sorted chronologically. An easy to use interface is provided to connect to your camera and preview images and download and/or delete them. Behind the scenes Digikam utilizes gPhoto2 to access your camera if it has no normal file system.

Other new features of this version are:

  • Simple Plugin architecture so that new plugins can be written for added functionality
  • Comments can be added for photos which are shown in the thumbnail display (along with file size and file modification date)
  • XML is used for saving the comments
  • Four different thumbnail sizes
  • EXIF information viewer
  • Lossless JPEG rotation support
  • Fast photo viewer/editor with keyboard shortcuts and basic image editing features like rotation, cropping, gamma/brightness/contrast correction (all without losing EXIF information)
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Comments

by Datschge (not verified)

Still no excuse for Guillaume Laurent for his annoying repeated eclipse trolling wrt KDevelop even though eclipse can't offer it for C++ either (thus is not even on topic).

by Guillaume Laurent (not verified)

Oh please, grow up. The original post said "Kdevelop is better than Eclipse". This is just a plain stupid assertion. At best you could say that KDevelop is a better C++ IDE than Eclipse, and even then I'm not sure a strict side-by-side comparison (that is, actually testing the advertised features) would confirm that. That doesn't mean KDevelop sucks, Eclipse just has a lot more resources devoted to it.

by Datschge (not verified)

Sorry, but the one who needs to grow up is you. You are throwing around terms like "get real", "previous generation" and "obsolete" while attacking an awarded KDE application in a KDE forum, and you still expect to be taken seriously? Get real. =P

by Guillaume Laurent (not verified)

If you take this as an "attack", then yes, you need to grow up.

by Datschge (not verified)

No, I personally take it as a incredible waste of time on your part. I would rather like to see you developing Rosengarden, promoting its use and ideally leading an effort of building a decent audio and midi framework within KDE. The thread you started here with your unnecessary anti-KDevelop advertisement is both childish and trollish and not helping anyone here.

by Guillaume Laurent (not verified)

It is not "anti-kdevelop advertisement". I consider kdevelop to be a good tool. Believe it or not I actually hope to use it instead of xemacs for Rosegarden development at some point. But to claim that it's better than Eclipse is not good publicity. Likewise we wouldn't claim that Rosegarden is better than Cubase, because that would be giving users false expectations.

That said, you're right, it is a childish waste of time on my part, but I'm not much in a coding mood today.

by Guillaume Laurent (not verified)

No, the C++ plugin for eclipse is lacking refactoring and I'd be amazed if it ever had it given how complex the issue gets for C++ (compared to Java).

As for the rest of the features, all those you're listing are hardly important (and I have to wonder how well tested they are, too), except for code completion, which is a must-have.

Understand me, I'm not disparaging KDevelop, but to say it's better than Eclipse is just silly. Both simply don't play in the same league. Kind of like saying Rosegarden is better than Cubase, if you like :-).

by Christian Loose (not verified)

> Understand me, I'm not disparaging KDevelop, but to say it's better than Eclipse is just silly. Both simply don't play in the same league.

This might be true for Java but when you see the whole package then KDevelop *is* better than Eclipse today.

So I would say choose the IDE that fits your needs. As a Java programmer I would probably use Eclipse too but as a C++ developer I choose KDevelop over Eclipse anytime.

by Guillaume Laurent (not verified)

> As a Java programmer I would probably use Eclipse too but as a C++ developer I choose KDevelop over Eclipse anytime.

Likewise, no arguing about that. But if Eclipse would get the same kind of features for C++ that it has for Java, I'd switch instantly.

by Rayiner Hashem (not verified)

And if any of the current IDE's would get the features some of the Smalltalk/Lisp/Dylan IDEs have had for uears, I'd switch instantly too. But that ain't going to happen, not in my lifetime.

The point is that KDE is a C++ platform. The relative merits of IDEs are judged by their adeptness at handling C++ code, not Java code.

by Ruediger Knoerig (not verified)

Since Java is only usable for smaller programs which aren't used frequently 'cause of the bad performance and memory consumption you're right - KDevelop and Eclipse play in different leagues - KDevelop for real programs and Eclipse for small apps...

PS: Isn't it funny to see how badly the Java guys try to integrate the "uninteresting" features of C++? Wonder how long it will takes before Microsoft cleans up Java's edge with C# when the SUN-down is perfect :-)

by Guillaume Laurent (not verified)

> Since Java is only usable for smaller programs which aren't used frequently 'cause of the bad performance and memory consumption you're right

What's the color of the sky on your planet ? We all have Eclipse or IntelliJ Idea running for weeks on at my workplace (either on WinXP or Linux, though XP is much better for Java dev than Linux). The project I'm in has 40 programmers. Yes, we need half a gig and 2GHz P4 at least. So what, hardware is cheap, development time isn't. Such a setup is very common in the industry.

> Isn't it funny to see how badly the Java guys try to integrate the "uninteresting" features of C++?

Java made the mistake of oversimplifying things. MS seem to have reached a good balanced with C#. If the current market trends keep going, C# will accomplish what Java failed to do, that is turning C++ into a niche language, like C++ did for C.

by Ruediger Knoerig (not verified)

It's well-known that the wishes of the users grows more rapid than the capabilities of the hardware. Considering this, the combination of a cross-plattform toolkit like Qt - which reduces development time rapidly, IMHO even more than Java - and a performant language is the killer duo for the future :-).
Besides: We're working in the medical imaging domain - and there we couldn't get enough power (there's always something you can do if you have some power left - use more accurate models,...) and free memory :-)
And it's funny to see how much HW power you need under Java to achive the same results as with a P5 machine @200 Mhz :-)

Sorry, but you're a bit out-dated :-)

by Nick (not verified)

I like C++ better too. Java seems to be a step backwards in technology. C++ is simply the most advanced language today. C# has nothing that C++ didn't already have for 10 years. C++ is a free, but Java and .net are proprietary platforms. Java is not platform independent as many like to think, but ties you tightly to the Java platform. Java can't interact with any other languages and has only a sucky C interface. Java is totally pathetic if you look at it closer.
C#/.net is only little better. At least the templates are real templates there, but again its not cross platform as you get hooked up to M$ which nobody really wants. at least C++ can be a valid .Net language.
I really wished someone would continue the c++ VM that was started once. With GC becoming a c++ standard in 2005 C++ will stay the coolest language anyway. No need for Java/C# crap

by Guillaume Laurent (not verified)

> C# has nothing that C++ didn't already have for 10 years.

Show me introspection, delegates, serialisation, GC, class loading, remote method calls in C++ ? You're going to reply to me that it's all there if you use the right libraries, which is precisely the point : C# has all these in standard. Please, you're just acting like the Gnome zealots who used to argue that C++ had nothing you could already do in C, lacking both objectivity and technical knowledge.

by Nick (not verified)

Just that C++ has actually more language features than C#. Delegates is just signals/slots light. Where is multiple inheritance in C#? MI is much more useful than introspection...
A Gnome zealot I am certainly not! But I grant you that C# is better than Java. If it only had more C++ features and wouldn`t depend on a VM...

by Guillaume Laurent (not verified)

> Just that C++ has actually more language features than C#

a) few people see this as an advantage
b) the question is *which* features

> Where is multiple inheritance in C#?

You generally don't need it (not always, but in most cases).

> MI is much more useful than introspection...

Oh absolutely. And a spoon is so much more useful than a screwdriver.

> A Gnome zealot I am certainly not!

No, but you think like one, even if it's on different subjects.

by Nick (not verified)

>Oh absolutely. And a spoon is so much more useful than a screwdriver.

Thats exactly the point I am making. I use a spoon several times per day, a screwdriver not very often.

> b) the question is *which* features

oh my god! its like you are reading my mind :). .Net does a few things different than C++ and has a feature more where c++ lacks one and the other way around, but in the end they are pretty close! And C++ development hasnt stopped. GC among other things will come soon. (inofficially its already there...)

the step from C -> C++ was a huge innovation. C++ -> C# is only a little step. For the free software community it would be much better to build on C++ than on C#, and guess what, my favorite Desktop KDE does just that :)

by Guillaume Laurent (not verified)

Out of curiosity, could you detail your work experience in C++ ? How long have you been using it ? What kind of software have you written ? What C++ books have you read ?

by Nick (not verified)

Hi Guillaume!
Do you think anybody except us is still reading this? Why don't you try to catch me on #pclasses on freenode.net :)

by Guillaume Laurent (not verified)

I'd rather keep it here. So ? What's your C++ experience ?

And also, I suggest you take a look at these excellent series on interviews between Anders Hejlsberg, Bill Venners and Bruce Eckel :
http://www.artima.com/intv/csdes.html

Especially this one, the part entitled "Components are first class" :

http://www.artima.com/intv/simplexityP.html

by Ruediger Knoerig (not verified)

GC would hopefully only an option (e.g. memory manager in the standard libs) since GC is one of many possibilities to do the trick and not the right choice in all scenarios. Mathematic toolboxes are using memory pools, RT applications allocate and deallocate by programmers command. It's one of Java's shortcoming to be fixated on one memory managment system.
Virtual machines are another problem since they cost a lot of resources and performance. Imagine a KDE where each permanently running program uses their own VM! Besides this, the VM concept prevents you from using the full power of your machine when you need it (e.g. for multimedia, games etc.) or using your machine in a more economic manner (e.g. OS throttling down the CPU if the full power isn't required - see the impact on the uptime of laptops!).
All in all I think that Qt has the correct answer - an intuitive cross-plattform toolkit for rapid development of performant programs easily deployable on different plattforms.

by Guillaume Laurent (not verified)

> We're working in the medical imaging domain

That's a very narrow domain with extreme performance requirements. It's quite obvious that Java is not suitable for your task. However your experience can't be generalized to the rest of the industry.

by Rischwa (not verified)

>What's the color of the sky on your planet ?

Obviously another than on yours:
>that is turning C++ into a niche language, like C++ did for C.
Statistics? C a niche language? Probably like COBOL, right?
I actually read (some time last year) that there gets more new COBOL code written than java, for example.
Your prediction is just naive imho, the industriy doesn't change to fancy new languages, when there are millions of working lines of code and they won't in the future, especially not to .net, is my prediction ;).

by Guillaume Laurent (not verified)

> Your prediction is just naive imho, the industriy doesn't change to fancy new languages, when there are millions of working lines of code

These are called "legacy applications". That "new COBOL" is called "maintenance". It's true that some industries still haven't changed to more current languages (oil is one example if I recall correctly), for many reasons. But that doesn't mean they're not looking at what's going on and not considering it eventually.

by Rayiner Hashem (not verified)

KDevelop is primarily a C++ IDE. The language is a bitch to parse (the number of correct C++ parsers in existence can be counted on one hand) and its syntax and expression flexibility make refactoring non-trivial. So of course KDevelop doesn't have refactoring --- its not a Java/Smalltalk IDE!

by Alex (not verified)

It's now my favourite Linux image viewer, it's no acd see (yet) but it's veryu good, I'm not even using Mosfet's Pixie Plus anymore.

by Justin Karneges (not verified)

From what I remember, Gwenview is modeled after Acdsee.

Is there some overlap here, or are Digikam and Gwenview complimentary?

by pahli_bar (not verified)

comparing digikam and gwenview to commercial applications, i would say gwenview is similar to acdsee and digikam is more like iphoto. digikam's main focus is end user ease of use. (but we are not skimping on the features part :))
pahli_bar

by digiboy (not verified)

How does it handle cameras that uses the usb mass storage interface instead of gphoto?

Or is this program not ment for newish usb storage type of cameras? Which I must say is a pity,

Digiboy

by Spy Hunter (not verified)

Firstly, GPhoto supports these types of cameras, and secondly, Digikam isn't tied to GPhoto; it can manage photos from anywhere. No need to use three exclamation points and two question marks.

by pahli_bar (not verified)
by UglyMike (not verified)

Very nice!!

It's actually the first appplication that allows me to pull pictures of my Creative PC_CAM 300! The other GPhoto2 frontends can detect it but never find any pictures...

Digikam is a great help for me (one less reason to dualboot....)
Together with the spca50x driver, I have (finally!!) a fully working webcam-with-photo-capability. Life is grand.

I installed DigiKam from Cooker on Mandrake 10-b2.

The only problem remaining is that I dont get thumbnails of the pics in the camera. (cli has a line about "unable to show JPEG" or so...)

by Bastian (not verified)

Be sure that both gphoto and libgphoto are compiled with EXIF support.
No EXIF, no thumbnails...

by Pablo de Vicente (not verified)

I want to thank you the developers for this application. I use it with my Canon IXUS 400 and it works wonderfully. I archive my photographs in collections with Digikam, and since it supports EXIF information I know how and when the photographs were performed.

I have one question which has already been done by others, but not answered:
- Why is digikam not included in KDE?. As others have said if the developers want to keep their release cycle, kdeextragear is the module for that.

I wait impatiantely for that planned plugin for removing red eyes. This is something that Digikam needs.

Thanks again, and think about including Digikam in the KDE CVS.

by Anonymous (not verified)

Just installed Digikam from the SuSE 9.0 APT Repository. Is it just me or are all of the toolbar icons in the main application window missing?

(Icons ARE displayed in the camera window.)

by Anonymous (not verified)

Just downloaded the latest source tarball from the digikam site and copied the files in pics/ to the global share/apps/digikam/icons/hicolor/. Works fine now.

by Aaron Williams (not verified)

I'm using Digicam quite a bit now. A couple features would be very useful.

1. Automatic rotation using the EXIF information from the camera. My canon PowerShot SD100 encodes the camera orientation in the picture.

2. More features for exporting albums, i.e. multiple pages, background effects, like what PixiePlus can do.