For a little background, can you describe the general topic of your presentation and tell us what is new in the last few months?
The presentation will contain a quick introduction to the programming model provided by the GEGL and some of higher level internal architectural possibilities. A major thing being worked on in the last months is some internal refactoring.
The internals of the buffer code have received improvements and work to add per node caches to improve the re-rendering speed upon graph re-arrangement and changes to the node's properties. GIMP 2.4 has recently been released increasing the amount of attention GEGL gets from core GIMP developers. As GIMP 2.5 work starts and the migration towards GEGL really begins this will prove both interesting and increase the momentum of GEGL development.
Apart from GEGL how much are you involved in GIMP? Is there a roadmap of features for GIMP you can tell us about?
In the last couple of years I have tried to mainly spend my available time on GEGL instead of GIMP. This to make sure GEGL was in a state which allows GIMP to move forward with the plan of integrating GEGL. My plan is to continue working mainly on GEGL as GIMP migrates over to and works on top of GEGL. When it comes to the future roadmap of GIMP I'd have to refer to ongoing discussions on the gimp-developer mailing list.
Can you give a summary of what you will present? Why should someone choose to come to your presentation?
I will present capabilities that go beyond what is currently possible in the current GIMP, showing off some of the technologies that GEGL enables. The presentation will most certainly feature custom GUIs experiments on top of GEGL.
How did you get involved in Free Software and in what way is it important to you?
It all started in 1995 when I was 16 and a friend handed me Slackware. I was amazed by the amount of software and information available for my exploration with Linux distributions. My primary operating environment on computers has been Linux since 1996. When I was playing with making a custom "live distribution" on a 3½" disk thinking that it would be sweet if one day this system evolved further through use, interest and contributions. Both when I went to college, and later when I started lecturing at the same college, I used Free and Open Source Software in all courses where it was possible, even when it meant I had to spend a bit more effort to make things work. Now I am working for a company using Free Software as a base to provide services and technologies.
3½" disk is pretty far away from a distribution of today. Do you miss those days?
The technologies involved aren't that much different today, especially if you look into embedded use of Linux, thus things haven't changed that much.
Do you see any missing pieces in Free Software today?
I see plenty of room for improving both user and developer experience, I do not want to point out any particular thing that is missing; if I did I might very well be mistaken as well since there is a lot of things happening that might be off my radar.
Is there any other particular presentation you'll be going to? Why is that topic of interest?
I will attend the presentation about "Free Software with a Female Touch". I am keen to see the total number of Free Software contributors increasing. Changes to rectify the evolved male centric developer culture will probably widen the range of contributors without regard to gender.
Contact: pippin@gimp.org
Links: Øyvind Kolås
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