Source

I was only recently made aware that GIMP 2.8, a.k.a. ‘the one with single window mode’, had strayed off course from its intended release date of December 26th this year.

Perhaps I’ve been too busy with my cajoling of Adobe to bring Photoshop to Linux to notice that one of Linux’s most powerful applications is in a little bit of a mire.

LibreGraphicsWorld offers up some background on the delay: -

“Unfortunately the GIMP team that has always been short-handed became even more shorthanded during spring 2010, when Martin [Northolts] became too busy to contribute to the project on daily basis the way he used to, thus leaving the team with just 2.5 dedicated developers.

This is quite unfortunate, since the only big chunk of work left to do for 2.8 is the optional single-window mode, for which the final design spec is also missing at the time.”

Sucks, right? It’s often easy to forget that some of these ‘big name’ applications don’t have ‘big name’ grunt behind them.

So, if you’re feeling in charitable, helpful or otherwise altruistic mood thanks to excessive amounts of mince pies then send the GIMP team some love with a donation or – perhaps more vitality – a helping hand.

Thanks to Antonio

Donations in this case will be of no any help because gimp team is against hire or compensate developers.
And the main problem is that one of the major developer could not refuse a good job so had to stop his daily contributions

Basically only thing that may help are contributes to the code, not that other contributions (economic, for documentation or translations etc) are not considered useful or welcome but in this case will no help to shorten the wait

Yeah i wish i was better at it i would help if i could.I know nothing about C programming language though.
Sorry.

Don't flame me, but I like the multi windows. Guess using GIMP for over 9 years rubs off on you. Actually don't like having to maximize PS when I do take it for a spin to get to all the side menu controls. To eaches own.

i couldn't care less of single window mode, but so many were waiting with impatience new Gimp only for that

And most courageous even installed some 2.7 to use it, they saw that is basically working and would freak out if next gimp would miss the promise to support it

On the other hand even if may seem ready is not, and if implemented as now i fear tons of complains about bugs (many apparently unrelated ... but only apparently ) will flood developers as all gimp forums

But Mike if you are impatient just get last 2.7 from git or from the Martin blog, now seems pretty stable (at least if used with previous multi windows mode, i really have no interest to test the single window mode)

I like single window mode, but I don't necessarily need it, I like the Layer groups, included brushes, and the brush dynamics the most. I would love to try that Cage Transformation tool though.

hopefully the single window mode will be a choice and not the only format. cage transform sounds awesome and I'm looking forward to that!

Yes for sure will be a choice

I love the single window mode but can live without it.I now have tools for warping images like the cage tool.Also 2.7 with single window, and layer groups runs great on my machine along side it's sister 2.6.11, and just as stable.
So i can wait for the next stable version. =)

What is real cool is that that article mentions that the next version will have even better than expected Cairo tools that sounds great!

As a quick reminder, GIMP 2.8 will be coming with the following essential changes:

1. Optional single-window mode.
2. Text tool working on canvas, with rich text formatting.
3. Cairo based tools rendering on canvas, bringing a new slick user experience.
4. New Cage transform tool.
5. Much improved brush dynamics, with more flexibility.
6. Tagging of assets
7. Layer groups.
8. Refactored API for developers.
Awesome!

I do like the rotating brush option; won't eliminate the need for gih brushes, but would replace around 80% of my gihs when this feature get's implemented.

It's always nice to be able to lighten Gimp up a little. =)
That's why i love GURM so much. I think it should be included in the master code. (along with G'MIC)

I'm hoping to do away with GURM with the resourcing tagging feature of 2.8 Should be able to filter resources like brushes, patterns, gradients, etc. by keywords.

Unfortunately it looks like keywords must be manually entered at this time. I've posted on the dev irc asking if there is a way to bundle a set of resources (like brushes) and have them pre-tagged, but it seems that there is not (yet).

-Rob A>

Thanks Rob. =)

I have a separate partition where I installed Gentoo Linux (like on my regular system).
I use this for experiments and if the need arises to chroot into my regular install.
I had Gimp 2.7.1 on it and wanted to replace it with the latest from git.gnome.org.
Through git I got hold of babl and gegl 0.1.5 and gimp itself.
I installed babl first,then gegl and then Gimp.
This kept failing with all kinds of problems,spent hours on it trying to get it to compile.
I was very keen on getting it to install because I wanted to try the Cage Transform tool very much.
I gave up finally.Surfing the net I came across this ftp site : ftp://gimptest.flamingtext.com/pub/nightly-tarballs/
They had babl & gegl 0.1.3 and Gimp-2.7.2.
D'led and away we went.
Why the git stuff wouldn't work is still a mystery to me.
I finally could try Cage Transform: I can understand why people want it now!
It's really great!
Gerard.

Generally speaking, you should not use the latest GIT versions of BABL and GEGL when compiling the latest GIT version of GIMP. Instead, one should use their latest stable releases (currently v1.4 for BABL and for GEGL).

Thanks for the links saulgoode.
I still wonder what is missing in the git files.
The first time I compiled gegl (after babl) it errored out with the message:
"babl version too old" or something similar.Both where 0.1.5 though.
Since my whole Linux install is by compilation I have all the needed software.
Proof of that is that it compiled w/o a hitch using the flamingtext tarballs.
Thanks again for the link.
Gerard.

The gimp from git still errors out with the babl and gegl-0.1.4 from gimp.org:
Babl and gegl too old.

I wonder if it has to do with having to use "autogen.sh" instead of ./configure.
Gerard.

The output of ./configure should provide more precise details;




When compiling the sources from GIT it is indeed necessary to first run autogen.sh (this will create/update the ./configure script).

My guess is that your problem stems from a previous version of GIMP being installed on your system, and its BABL and GEGL libraries being the ones found by ./configure . What is your system information and what are you using as your DESTDIR, PKG_CONFIG_PATH, and PREFIX when compiling?

Every time I try a new install I run make uninstall first.
Besides that I use mc (midnight commander) and check that nothing is left.
PKG_CONFIG_PATH =/usr/bin,PREFIX=/usr.
I assume DESTDIR will be based on prefix.

When I compile from tarball I can use configure and that always works ok.
If autogen.sh errors out I am left w/o a configure file.
My goal was to have a working Gimp-2.7 with cage transform.
I got it working now thanks to the tarballs from flamingtext.

I'll wait until Gimp-2.8 hits the Gentoo Portage tree before attempting another install.
Thanks for your answers though.
Gerard.

Edit:Just took a look at the flamingtext site.They now have babl and gegl 0.1.5.

Yeah wow they were selling their domain for a few weeks there, and i thought FT was going bye bye.
cool to see they are still hosting the links.

thanks!