[Shotwell] Shotwell 0.7 plan

[Adam Dingle]

Tor,

On 07/19/2010 01:50 AM, Tor Løvskogen Bollingmo wrote:
>>       * Monitoring the library directory (i.e. the import directory the
>> user chooses in the Preferences dialog) for added and removed files,
>> which will be automatically added to or removed from the Shotwell
>> library. The user will have a preference to enable or disable
>> monitoring. Shotwell 0.7 will monitor only this single directory. In
>> future releases we hope to be able to monitor multiple directories.
>> [http://trac.yorba.org/ticket/374]
>>      
> Will this spawn a Preference Dialog for Shotwell? Not having a Preference Dialog is great, less options, less complexity. Great.
>    

As you may be aware Shotwell 0.6 already includes a preferences dialog, 
so that will not be new in 0.7.

>>       * Rating photos. The user will be able to assign any of the
>> following ratings to each photo: unrated (the default), 1-5 stars, or
>> Rejected (the lowest rating). You will be able to sort and/or filter by
>> rating. By default, Shotwell will display all photos except rejected
>> photos. In the browser view, we'll have a dropdown menu on the toolbar
>> that will allow you to select a different filter, e.g. only 3 stars and
>> higher. This will replace Shotwell's existing hidden/favorites
>> mechanism. When you upgrade from 0.6 to 0.7, all previously hidden
>> photos will become Rejected and all previously favorite photos will be
>> assigned a rating of 5 stars.  [http://trac.yorba.org/ticket/2233
>>      
> Why have the hidden / rejected files in the library in the first place? Could the not just be removed? The 1-5 star rating is good for filtering, but having a "hide image" or "rejected images" inside the library sounds very strange.

I don't think this is strange, since this is a common feature in other 
photo organizers:

- Both Picasa and iPhoto allow the user to mark a photo as hidden (like 
in Shotwell 0.6).
- F-Spot lets the user assign the Hidden tag to a photo.
- Aperture lets the user rate a photo using 1-5 stars or as rejected 
(like in Shotwell 0.7).
- Lightroom lets the user mark a photo as rejected (independently of its 
rating).

I think that many photographers want to mark photos as of below-average 
quality without necessarily removing them from the library; that's what 
this feature is for.

> Do users quickly understand this?
>    

As far as I know, users do understand: I don't believe that we've ever 
heard a user say they were confused by the Hide command.  I think that 
setting a photo as rejected will also be easy to understand in Shotwell 
0.7: the Set Rating menu includes Rejected as one of the choices and I 
think the meaning is fairly evident.  This is already implemented in 
trunk so feel free to take a look at the existing implementation - 
feedback is welcome.

adam