Hi all -

While reviewing some build warnings (see my environment below), I stumbled on some odd ones in plugins/impex/xcf/3rdparty. It seems like the default config.h isn't "totally" setup correctly for all systems. Environment variables like CAN_DO_UNALIGNED_WORDS (and _i386_ surprisingly ?) may not be set correctly. In this particular case, we may all be benefiting from a pretty forgiving x86 architecture when it comes to byte alignment. I guess, most of our machines are x86 based anyway.
The tools and test suite are closely tied to some key libraries like iconv, png and relevant config settings (most of which are absent in the "sparse" config.h in the current krita distribution)

Now, this is an old "autotools" (arghh...) base project from the original 1.0.7 Henning Makholm's Xcftools. There is a mirror at https://github.com/j-jorge/xcftools with a "stale" cmake branch that I got up and running...also sports better support for pkgconfig approach (1.0.8?)

I've scoured the krita bug list for any Gimp xcf like import/export issues, but have found nothing of interest so far. Of course, that doesn't mean there aren't any latent or unreported ones.

Is this worth, at least filing an issue, recording my findings, test results and submitting a patch?

Regards, P.

My environment profile:

mac pro 3,1
macOS Sierra GM
Xcode 8 Final Release
krita 3.0.1 2db4438671e17002c7b02e3ad3a5208930765e4f
RelWithDebInfo

A patch would definitely be welcome! There's one gotcha, though, and that's that the next version of Gimp has a changed xcf format, and since Henning's no longer maintaining his code, we're going to be in trouble...

boudewijn wrote:A patch would definitely be welcome! There's one gotcha, though, and that's that the next version of Gimp has a changed xcf format, and since Henning's no longer maintaining his code, we're going to be in trouble...

Yeah. That's why I'm wondering what the "roadmap" for xcftools is. Wolthera said the tools are definitely critical for imports, not sure how many folks are actually exporting to Gimp, and how large the krita+Gimp user base is.

Even if Gimp will change their format, we'll have to support it right?

I'm a GIMP+Krita user but exchange my pictures in tiff or png.

(Using GIMP because of Gutenprint)

We've never been able to save to xcf; and the thing is, the Gimp developers (and I think they're right) have always maintained that xcf is their native format, not meant for interchange, not meant to be supported by other applications. Not a standard, their thing to do with as they like. OpenRaster actually is moving again, and if the GImp team manages to release a little more frequently, ORA probably could grow into a good interchange format.

boudewijn wrote:We've never been able to save to xcf; and the thing is, the Gimp developers (and I think they're right) have always maintained that xcf is their native format, not meant for interchange, not meant to be supported by other applications. Not a standard, their thing to do with as they like. OpenRaster actually is moving again, and if the GImp team manages to release a little more frequently, ORA probably could grow into a good interchange format.

Sounds like you're making the case for its (xcftools) extraction from krita...Would be a waste of time to maintain?

It depends on when Gimp 2.10 is going to be released. If it's this year, or next year, well, we might want to retire the filter then. If it's not for another two, three years, well, let's keep it until then.