I am also anxious for 2.8 to be released,however...
May I point to the date of these links: August 2011.
And I agree with MetteHHH,that link hasn't changed for quite a while.
Gerard.

Oh, how about a contest for conspiracy theories re GIMP 2.8?

There's very little actual work left to do. Mitch said group layers masks will be postponed till 2.10 or maybe later. So all is left for 2.8 are bugfixes, some work on updating the website, release notes and the new splash. Oh, and translation updates.

prokoudine - I'm all for conspiracy theories! (Actually, I probably should have stuck a few smileys in there, this being my first post on the forum and all )

But seriously, your comment only makes it all the more mysterious: If group layer masks has been postponed, then there is only ONE single bug left to fix, and then a bunch of (to my eye) minor tasks - yet the last thing to have been moved OFF that list happened on August 23rd. So... more than two months since any of the remaining tasks were solved.

I know this is all based on voluntary work, but I am a coding ignorant, which sort of prevents me from offering to help... but are we talking about a lack of volunteers? (Or did all the people working on Gimp 2.8 get abducted by Martians maybe? Ehm, just in cause you do launch that contest )

Another disappointment posted to the gimp-dev list:



I was really looking forward to layer groups masking - without that feature layer groups are very little use, imoo

-Rob A>

Conspiracy
Guys on MARS,
Women on Venus,
Impatient GIMP 2.8 on GimpChat.
And when the 2.10?

This is not good news. I hope the developers get motivated soon. The team could use some new blood, perhaps a crackerjack college kid with nothing but free time on their hands.

I'm a bit puzzled by this comment. You mean minor tasks are not the remaining ones? Mitch seems to be rather busy recently which, I think, contributes to less progress on finalization.


To the best of my knowledge, GIMP never has an excessive amount of contributors. There's heaps of work to do.


So was I. But then it depends on your typical tasks, I guess.


Would you like to provide some? A+ is preferable

All I meant to say - sorry if that wasn't clear - was that if I was part of a team that had
1) poured a LOT of work effort and dedication into a project
2) announced that major obstacles had been overcome, and set up a graph that showed 60 remaining work-days before release
3) used that graph to show a steady progress (approximately linear for four months) until 20 remaining work-days (estimated release date in November 2011)
4) then (according to the figure) experienced NO progress for more than two months
...that wouldn't be NORMAL progress for the kind of projects I have been involved in. I think it would probably involve something unforeseen happening. I was just wondering if anyone knew what might be going on.

I don't mean Martians or An Evil Adobe Conspiracy, that was just silliness. I don't mean to complain about it either. I just don't know any of the people involved personally (I do admire their work), and so I thought someone here might know a bit more than I did.

If some fairly trivial tasks remain that I could potentially help with, I wouldn't mind doing that - but on the other hand I feel silly offering help on the mailing list, when I don't know the first thing about compiling code. I'm not sure I can be helpful - but I can't help being interested. That's all really.

We should also take into account that newer releases (even numbers), will be out quicker after 2.8.
So even if layer groups masking isn't released with 2.8, it could very well come packaged with 2.10 .

After 2.8 is out, the developers will be able to breathe a little.Instead of having to worry on a release date, they will be able to concentrate on just the code projects.That had to have hampered code development i am sure.
My hats off to each and every one of the developers that bring us such fine free graphic design software.

You first.

If i were still in college and had plenty of spare time on my hands, this kind of thing would be right in my wheelhouse.

Just lack of time.

Here's a link where you can follow what the Gimp devs are doing.
http://git.gnome.org/browse/gimp/
Click on the line you want to know more about.
These are changes made in the program.
They might appear to be trivial but remember that it generally took a lot of time to find the problem.
Gerard.

One contributing factor which I've yet seen mentioned is that the GIMP developers are working in concert with the both the Gegl project and with GTK+. GTK+ in particular has recently seen a major version bump and I notice that Mitch (one of the main GIMP developers) has made a significant number of contributions to that project and those efforts are to the benefit of GIMP.

Here is another link to keep track of release.
http://tasktaste.com/projects/Enselic/gimp-2-8

Release tasks left -

Write release notes
Announce string freeze
Decide on a splash image
Bug 631934 - Interaction between Old text parameters and new region specific text attributes
Bug 51112 - Support layer masks on layer groups <-- still possible
Single-window mode related bug fixing buffer

And it looks like a release date of November 8th of this year. (fingers crossed)

I know that site Rod,hasn't changed in weeks.
Gerard.

gerard82, thanks a lot for your link! This was exactly the kind of encouraging peek-behind-the-curtain type info I was hoping for. My first post was simply spurred by the depressive effect of watching Martin Nordholts progress-graph go horizontal and stay horizontal for ten weeks...

...of course I might have guessed that his graph just wasn't being updated rather than progress having stopped completely, but since he appears to be one of the main characters in gimp development, I was worried...

To top things off, his graph finally WAS updated (with the layer-group-bug being pulled off, probably because it was moved to 2.10). So now his graph estimates a release date at Christmas!

http://tasktaste.com/projects/Enselic/gimp-2-8

I'm off on maternity leave for Christmas, so I would LOVE a new software toy to play with while work doesn't monopolize as much of my time!

Yey! Good news all around today!

To be honest, I'd rather have them get it right then release it too soon. I still remember the fiasco between 2.0x and 2.2.x (believe that's when they redefined how Script-fus were suppose to be written). It was a brutal time. Still not convinced that Mathmap will ever get ported to 64-bit platform, so that will be a driving factor for me to fully used GIMP 2.8 over 2.6 (won't go back to 32-bit for 2.8). Other plugins such as Filter Factory convertor hasn't, I don't believe, been ported to 64-bit GIMP either. Just wish some super guru compiles these plugins for me for 64-bit GIMP; lol (I laugh since I don't think that will happen; hope I'm wrong).

Not sure but maybe Samij has Filter Factory convertor for 64 bit on its side..look also for Userfilter or User Filter there
(that was the original name)

You're quite welcome MetteHHH.
I d/l once a week the latest from git.gnome.org.
That's how I know.
Gerard.

this is one of the reasons using a portable version of GIMP is a good idea.
you can have more than one version on a Windows system and they don't interfere with each other.