F-Spot: Sidebar improvements
============================

NOTE: This proposal is an updated version of the F-Spot Gegl proposal
[1], retargeted towards visible usability work.

The F-Spot sidebar currently acts as a tag browser, with some minimal
image information. I would like to change the behavior of this to a more
versatile design, where the sidebar can perform multiple actions
depending on the context. This would allow integration of an image
information pane, editing commands, external sources, ... This is based
on jimmac's mockups [2].

One of the main problems I would like to address is the poor usability
of the editing toolbar near the bottom of the Edit Image view. Turning
this view into a sidebar pane, like Picasa would increase
discoverability of the editing commands.

As a side goal, it should become far easier to add new editing commands
through plugins. I will convert the editor commands to use F-Spot's
plugin architecture.

Ongoing work can be found in the form of a first-draft patch [3]. As
such, the first step would be to review and integrate this patch. This
will serve as a starting point towards improving the usability of
F-Spot. I will focus on the editors first, but I would also like to
improve the image information display.

Deliverables
============

I aim to add the following to F-Spot

 * A context-sensitive sidebar.

 * A much-improved editing UI by moving the commands to the sidebar.
 
 * Editor commands as plugins.

 * (If time permits it): An updated image information pane.

Timeline
========

A proposed timeline (but highly flexible depending on the time needed):

 * Week 1 & 2 (May 26 - June 8):
   Review the current Sidebar patch and merge it. Identify points that need
   improvement.

 * Week 3 & 4 (June 9 - June 22):
   Improve the preliminary sidebar work (needs a lot of love). Make sure it
   handles different contexts correctly.

 * Week 5 & 6 (June 23 - July 6):
   Study the F-Spot architecture, figure out where the editing code resides
   (it's currently spread over multiple locations). Break out editing commands
   into extensions.

 * Week 7 & 8 (July 7 - July 20):
   GUADEC Hacking sprint, implement the sidebar editing UI. Low-budget GUADEC
   usability tests to identify further improvement points.

 * Week 9 & 10 (July 21 - Aug 3):
   Integrate the information display panel.

 * Week 11 & 12 (Aug 4 - Aug 17):
   Wrap-up, bug fixing & stability work.

About me
========

My name is Ruben Vermeersch and I'm am currently pursuing my masters
degree in software engineering at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. I
have been a long time user of GNOME. The GNOME community (and all the
cool things happening in the 2.4 days) was one the main reasons why I
started my studies in computer science. Participation in Google
Summer of Code would allow me to spend a full summer working on GNOME.

More about me can be found on my website: http://www.savanne.be

References
==========

[1]: http://files.savanne.be/linux/gsoc-f-spot-gegl.txt
[2]: http://f-spot.org/New_Features_-_Sidebar
[3]: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=441060