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Ansel

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Re: Ansel

#131

Post by marcus_holmes »

codeptualize wrote: post #42
nas wrote: post #8

This is the work of a former "darktable" developer (Aurélien Pierre) who decided to fork the codebase and go it alone. He has strong opinions about the correct way to do things. I like some of the cleanup on the UI that he has done. For now, Ansel and darktable are compatible in terms of the underlying database. So you can easily switch back and forth between them. If the fork diverges significantly, it would be more…

> "Ansel is what Darktable 4.0 could have been if its developers were not so busy turning it into an usability nightmare. Ansel is a Darktable 4.0 variant where 30.000 lines of poorly-written code and half-broken features have been removed, and 11.000 lines rewritten : it runs faster, smoother, uses less power and requires less configuration. Enjoy an app focusing on getting work done and stability." Shots fired!

But this is the ultimate dream of open-source, right?

The whole "if you don't like how a program works, you can fork it and change it" thing.

Amazing to see this actually working in practice. You might not like Ansel, but he does, and more power to his elbow!

Re: Ansel

#132

Post by aoeusnth1 »

flogoe wrote: post #121
aoeusnth1 wrote: post #78

I can't get this to build for MacOS, has anyone succeeded? I ran the brew commands from the mac-nightly CI script, did `git submodule init; git submodule update` and get this error running `build.sh`: ``` $ sh build.sh --build-type Release --install --sudo --clean-all; In file included from /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX14.0.sdk/usr/include/cups/http.h:39: /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/Mac…

Did you see the OS Support section in the README [0]? I tried for about 15 minutes and didn't get it to build. And even if it did, it would probably not be stable enough to use for anything productively. [0] https://github.com/aurelienpierreeng/ansel#os-support

Yeah, I saw that, but I also saw instructions for building on Mac and CI scripts for doing it so I got hopeful :(

I don’t mind a few gtk bugs.

Re: Ansel

#134

Post by sevagh »

nneonneo wrote: post #125
okl wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author has a blog post here, https://ansel.photos/en/news/darktable-dans-le-mur-au-ralent... , which exhibits some example code, for example, this: https://github.com/darktable-org/darktable/blob/darktable-4.... That's a far cry from what I'd find acceptable in any project.

The author is not wrong, the code really is crazy. Here's another random snippet from the ugly rewrite: for(char relative[] = "-2"; (relative[0] ^= '+' ^ '-') == '-' || ++relative[1] This is just pure excess cleverness. It's not even obvious how many times this loop runs for. There's a comment 1000 lines away that says this: #define NUM_INSTANCES 5 // or 3, but change char relative[] = "-2" to "-1" This is just insan…

This just got added to some lists of interview questions.

Re: Ansel

#135

Post by CharlesW »

ungamedplayer wrote: post #99
chefandy wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not familiar with the software, but generally, I get why he left to go do his own thing. I've made a few forks of a few projects over the years considering it. I'm perpetually in the process of beating this dead horse, but FOSS would have so so many banging gold-standard user-facing apps if they enlisted the help of experienced UI or maybe UX designers and really worked to make them part of the community. To do t…

> FOSS would have so so many banging gold-standard user-facing apps if they enlisted the help of experienced UI or maybe UX designers . And here lies the rub. I have tried soliciting help in the past . Most ui UX ppl only want to work on successful projects, but successful projects don't need help from ux/UI people.

> …successful projects don't need help from ux/UI people.

Is GIMP the exception that proves the rule?

Re: Ansel

#136

Post by denton-scratch »

CharlesW wrote: post #135
ungamedplayer wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FOSS would have so so many banging gold-standard user-facing apps if they enlisted the help of experienced UI or maybe UX designers . And here lies the rub. I have tried soliciting help in the past . Most ui UX ppl only want to work on successful projects, but successful projects don't need help from ux/UI people.

> …successful projects don't need help from ux/UI people. Is GIMP the exception that proves the rule?

Is your point that GIMP is not successful; or that it is successful, despite lacking ux/UI people?

Re: Ansel

#138

Post by renjimen »

simulo wrote: post #124
renjimen wrote: post #28

Looks good, I'll give it a whirl. I could never figure out a good darktable workflow. The UI seemed all over the place with some basic features missing and way too bloated in certain areas that I imagine 99% of users would never touch. Hopefully Ansel has figured out a better feature balance and UI. My current Linux photo processing tool is Another RawTherapee [1], which is a wonderful blend of the power of RawTherap…

I also throught of ART as a fork of RawTherapee, also forked with the aim to make it easier to use. I wondered if that is something hard to avoid: Over time features get added, usability worsens. This might be general, but it could apply to FOSS in particular, which often takes a modular approach (cue UNIX philosophy) and rarely includes structures where potentially useful features are rejected in order to keep the w…

Yeah, I guess there's a point where starting afresh is beneficial to refocus. A bit different, but it's the same for institutions too. I know some countries have "sundowner" clauses on every institution, where they need to apply for a permit to continue operating every 10 years or so. Provides a good point to think "is this working and still serving its original purpose?".

Re: Ansel

#139

Post by CharlesW »

denton-scratch wrote: post #136
CharlesW wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> …successful projects don't need help from ux/UI people. Is GIMP the exception that proves the rule?

Is your point that GIMP is not successful; or that it is successful, despite lacking ux/UI people?

The latter: Some technical people seem to love it, but it’s real hard to love if you come from mainstream tools.

Re: Ansel

#140

Post by chefandy »

cchance wrote: post #127
ungamedplayer wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> FOSS would have so so many banging gold-standard user-facing apps if they enlisted the help of experienced UI or maybe UX designers . And here lies the rub. I have tried soliciting help in the past . Most ui UX ppl only want to work on successful projects, but successful projects don't need help from ux/UI people.

This is what i kinda figured to be the case, UI/UX and generally artists don't seem to participate in projects as much for free or for projects that aren't already successful where they'll get some publicity out of especially on the art side of things.

And this is one of the big problems... not what you're talking about, but your understanding of what we do.

'Art' and UI/UX design are as different as fiction writers and technical writing. Someone might be good at both, but they're definitely not the same thing. Interfaces are a communication medium, and reasoning about the best way to communicate something is a process that often doesn't even touch aesthetics. These types of designers working for larger companies probably don't even get invited to the meetings where aesthetic decisions get made, and they definitely don't work for the art director who'd be involved in that.

The first step is figuring out what problems your users are trying to solve, and the next step is working with them to figure out the most effective way to do that. It's pretty pointless when the users are insanely defensive about the status quo, as is the case in most FOSS projects.

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