Nov
20
Interesting talk on F-Spot IRC
You are now talking on #f-spot [flavio] hi all i just tried f-spot i have a few comments if someone is interested in them... the main being able to browse photos by folder i have my "albums" organized into directories [flavio] and i'd like to able to browse them [pmjdebruijn] flavio: f-spot doesn't work with folder flavio: period flavio: you work with tags [pmjdebruijn] f-spot automatically organizes your files in folders based on date [pmjdebruijn] flavio: f-spot is photo _management_ application... not a file/directory browser flavio: tags is _way_ more powerful than folders can ever be [flavio] pmjdebruijn: are tags stored inside pictures? pmjdebruijn: if not, i will lose them when i'll change photo management app [pmjdebruijn] no f-spot does not touch your photo's unless you ask it to (in preferences) tags are stored in a database [flavio] pmjdebruijn: so the user is locked in to f-spot [pmjdebruijn] flavio: portability between photo management apps is always an issue [pmjdebruijn] no the database is sqlite so you can access it using plain tools [flavio] pmjdebruijn: well I could but not normal people [pmjdebruijn] but migrating to something else will take some work [pmjdebruijn] flavio: true flavio: there is no ideal solution to this problem [pmjdebruijn] modifying original files is _not_ an option (by default) but f-spot _can_ embed tags into the original files if you want to... I just wouldn't [flavio] pmjdebruijn: sorry but the ideal solution is organizing with directories pmjdebruijn: ok embedded tags are good [pmjdebruijn] flavio: right... we're not in the nineties anymore [pmjdebruijn] directories are way to limited [flavio] pmjdebruijn: directories are interoperable at least [pmjdebruijn] flavio: true... if you really want/need directory management... f-spot will not be for you flavio: consider jbrout or something like that [flavio] pmjdebruijn: i was used to digikam pmjdebruijn: i was just evaluating f-spot, the "timeline" is really nice pmjdebruijn: well i'm sorry about this "directories suck" opinion pmjdebruijn: feels a lot like OSX pmjdebruijn: but until filesystems implement something like "tags", directories are the only safe way of organizing data in the long term [pmjdebruijn] I'm fairly confident f-spot will remain for your to come... [pmjdebruijn] flavio: anyway, like I said, the database is accessable... to I can write my own conversion scripts [flavio] pmjdebruijn: ok i understand. but let me stress that f-spot is now assuming that i'm starting from scratch pmjdebruijn: and creating its own dir structure pmjdebruijn: i think its a bit ugly. It's fairly invasive pmjdebruijn: User photos should not be copied around and rearranged pmjdebruijn: "this app should respect my data" is what I thought when i saw it pmjdebruijn: btw wanting to copy 3gigs of photos is totally crazy pmjdebruijn: anyway this is constructive criticism (i hope) pmjdebruijn: the overall app is pretty cool, but this design decision is a blocker [pmjdebruijn] flavio: for you flavio: it copies the files... to maintain it's own directory structure [pmjdebruijn] based ondate [pmjdebruijn] flavio: managing photos... all over your filesystem will not really work well [pmjdebruijn] basically you insert a sd/cf card in the cardreader and then import/copy the files into ~/Photos or whatever [flavio] pmjdebruijn: also having duplicate photos will not work very well don't you think? [pmjdebruijn] flavio: and who cares about a 1 time copy of 3GB flavio: you can throw away the old copy? [flavio] suppose a user edits a photo for example makes it "sepia" [pmjdebruijn] flavio: it creates a new version [flavio] then goes in the photo folder [pmjdebruijn] flavio: F-SPot never modifies original files [flavio] the original exactly and sends it by email [pmjdebruijn] yes, so? [flavio] thinking it is the "sepia" version but it's not [pmjdebruijn] no [pmjdebruijn] flavio: you're not supposed to fiddle with the files [flavio] go ahead and explain this to your 13y old daughter [pmjdebruijn] flavio: f-spot can export directly to email/flickr/gallery2/smugmug/etc flavio: no need to fiddle with files [pmjdebruijn] that's the whole point of "photo management" [pmjdebruijn] flavio: you just want a file browser [pmjdebruijn] edited versions are clearly suffixed btw [flavio] pmjdebruijn: well but you cannot stop people from "fiddling" with files [pmjdebruijn] flavio: if you don't like the idea -] you something else [flavio] pmjdebruijn: well unless you remove the filemanager like the iPhone :D * pmjdebruijn doesn't see how the iPhone comes into this [flavio] pmjdebruijn: well it's a system that has no notion of "files" [pmjdebruijn] which is great for photos for other things is not that gerat for documents you have full text search, no need for tags and such but photo's aren't searchable and filenames/directories always come up short... [flavio] pmjdebruijn: well that depends on the search system [pmjdebruijn] flavio: anyway, like I said... you don't like the core thought of F-Spot... [flavio] it could also index photo metadata no rocket science [pmjdebruijn] flavio: what metadata? [flavio] exif, iptc [pmjdebruijn] flavio: I don't want to sort my photo based on ISO? [pmjdebruijn] and that assumed you're willing to modify original photos... which is evil [flavio] mmm comments should be inside the photos, don't you think? we have a really different view of evil :D no , seriously i don't want to discuss too much [pmjdebruijn] no editing originals is evil [flavio] this was meant to be a positive suggestion [pmjdebruijn] any app can break your original photo or lose data [flavio] well you're actually editing photos seems ok to write into them why not? [pmjdebruijn] things can go wrong? [pmjdebruijn] flavio: do you trust software that much? [flavio] well that's a bug :) [pmjdebruijn] flavio: but then you've already lost treasured photos [flavio] i think a program can prevent data loss in a way on another but that's an impl detail [pmjdebruijn] no never edit the originals... and make copies when editing but that doesn't work well with metadata indexing [pmjdebruijn] flavio: anwyay... f-spot probably isn't for you... * pmjdebruijn isn't a developer just to be clear... [flavio] oh ok i thought you were a dev nonethenless it was interesting never heard someone defend your opinion in such a way you think very OSX style [pmjdebruijn] only when it comes to photo's like I said
