These will replace the int arguments used in place of enums. The problem of int
arguments used as list of choices is that it makes calling PDB functions very
opaque. This is especially bad when a list is long, so you constantly have to
refer to the documentation to understand what a series of numbers mean in
argument lists.
And the second issue is that plug-in developers have to manually maintain a list
of values both in the GUI and in the documentation string. This help text may
get out-of-sync, may end up with missing values or whatnot. Also if it is used
as tooltips, it makes for very weird tooltips in the graphical interface, with
an overlong technical list of int-values mapping which should ideally only be
made visible in the PDB procedure browser listing.
GLib has a specific type for byte arrays: `GBytes` (and it's underlying
GType `G_TYPE_BYTES`).
By using this type, we can avoid having a `GimpUint8Array` which is a
bit cumbersome to use for both the C API, as well as bindings. By using
`GBytes`, we allow other languages to pass on byte arrays as they are
used to, while the bindings will make sure to do the right thing.
In the end, it makes the API a little bit simpler for everyone, and
reduces confusion for people who are used to working with byte arrays
in other C/GLib based code (and not having 2 different types to denote
the same thing).
Related: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/5919
GLib has a specific type of NULL-terminated string arrays:
`G_TYPE_STRV`, which is the `GType` of `char**` aka `GStrv`.
By using this type, we can avoid having a `GimpStringArray` which is a
bit cumbersome to use for both the C API, as well as bindings. By using
`GStrv`, we allow other languages to pass on string lists as they are
used to, while the bindings will make sure to do the right thing.
In the end, it makes the API a little bit simpler for everyone, and
reduces confusion for people who are used to working with string arrays
in other C/GLib based code (and not having 2 different types to denote
the same thing).
Related: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gimp/-/issues/5919
It isn't being used by any plug-in or any code in GIMP at all even.
Let's get rid of it while we can still break API, so we can cut down on
all the complexity of the gimp-param stuff a bit.
Although most GObject bindings can't really deal with struct fields,
it's still a nice thing to be able to see that these are actually arrays
(it also becomes visible in the Vala VAPI file).
I assume that we won't need most of these explicitly in bindings, but
_if_ it's needed, then it's best to make sure that people don't struggle
because they don't have proper API without annotations.
It's just too weird to be public. Remove its properties from the wire
protocol and from pluginrc. Instead, have all GParamSpecs' flags on
the wire and in pluginrc, so we can use stuff like
GIMP_PARAM_NO_VALIDATE.
Port the remaining few places to GIMP_PROC_ARG_STRING().
I'm sure something is broken now wrt UTF-8 validation,
will add tighter checks in the next commit.
which means that it's now included normally via gimpbase.h
and not any longer via gimpbasetypes.h which we only did out
of lazyness. A *lot* of files in libgimp* and app/ now need to
all the stuff from app/core/gimpparamspecs.[ch] that is not about
image, drawable etc IDs, these will have to go to libgimp with
different implementations than in app/.
Jehan