On Fri, 17 Jun 2005, Sven Neumann wrote: > Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2005 23:11:25 +0200 > From: Sven Neumann <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Leon Brooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [Gimp-developer] FAQ (-: sooner or later :-) KDEification of > GIMP > > Hi, > > Leon Brooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > > > This may seem like an oxymoron, given GIMP's heavy defacto relationship > > with GNOME-flavoured GTK, but is there any GIMP equivalent to > > OpenOffice's KDE integration (http://kde.openoffice.org/)? > > GIMP is not a GNOME application,
This point has been made before and I hope Sven is willing to clarify this point a little more as I do not entirely understand his purpose in saying it or putting it exactly that way. People have different ideas of what it means to be a Gnome application. For a long time the prevailing view has been a Gnome application is an application which uses Gnome libraries and applications that are part of the Core Gnome desktop. In this sense the GIMP is not a Gnome application as it does not require libraries outside of GTK. > it uses GTK+, the GIMP toolkit. This is by chance the same toolkit that > GNOME uses, so integration with GNOME is easier to achieve. That doesn't > mean though that we wouldn't try to make GIMP work well on KDE. Most mature developers recognise the benefits of working closely with KDE, following standards from Freedesktop.org and making applications integrate better. A desire to work well with both Gnome and KDE is no certainly barrier to an application becoming a Gnome application. > GIMP supports most of the cross-platform specs that the KDE and GNOME > people are developing to make this happen. What is missing to achieve > better KDE integration is someone who tests GIMP on KDE, gives feedback > and points out what's working and where there are problems. There is the strict sense of what it means to be a Gnome application which I described above and is what I believe Sven means and then there is the broaders sense of Gnome applications I will now try and describe. Some people carelessly refer to all GTK applications as Gnome applications, acronyms dont slip off the tongue quite as easily as words do but this really is not accurate or helpful. (Acrobat Reader 7 and Realplayer 10 are Gtk applications but about as far away from Gnome as you can get.) Increasingly there are many Gnome applications which no longer require any Gnome specific libraries and even the concept of Gnome libraries has changed with more and more work being done to improve Gtk instead of rebuilding uncessary layers on top of it. The older technical distinction is not as obvious or as clear anymore and many applications optionally use gnome libraries (compile time options) and can be quite different depending on what you choose. Gnome has a wider community beyond the core desktop applications and there are other vaguely defined areas such as Gnome Office, Fifth Toe, and others which are sometimes considered to be Gnome based on developers showing an interest and being willing to consider themselves as part of Gnome in the much wider sense. The GIMP is sometimes described as being part of the Fifth Toe, part of the wider community and well integrated with Gnome. Following the Gnome Human Interface Guidelines is something by itself which many people consider enough for any application to consider itself a Gnome application. Some people think applications which use Gnome CVS, and Gnome Bugzilla, the Gnome Translation Project and maybe evne the Gnome Help browser to be a part of Gnome. If a developer has asked for their journal to be included on Planet Gnome one might be forgiven for getting they impression they considered themselves part of the wider Gnome community. If the GIMP developers decided tomorrow to start saying the GIMP was a Gnome application without chaning anything else I sincerely doubt any Gnome supports would disagree and in fact I think many would welcome the gesture. Making a firm commitment to supporting the needs of KDE users and make promises not to require Gnome libraries certainly does not mean the GIMP needs to publically distance itself from Gnome. I firmly support efforts for better interoperability and work to keep the GIMP clean and portable. Perhaps Sven can clarify, I hope when he said "GIMP is not a GNOME application" he was describing it from a strict technical point of view and did not mean to distance the GIMP from the wider Gnome community which unfortunately was the impression I got in the past and one I think others might have also mistakenly gotten too. Sincerely Alan Horkan http://advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/ _______________________________________________ Gimp-developer mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xcf.berkeley.edu/mailman/listinfo/gimp-developer
