Re: [9fans] I prefer cropping images in Plan 9

[Ryan Gonzalez <rymg19@gmail.com>]

On July 21, 2018 8:21:10 AM "Ethan A. Gardener" <eekee57@fastmail.fm> wrote:

> I just had to crop a bunch of images in the Gimp, and recalled how much I 
> prefer doing it in Plan 9; it's so much less frustrating. In the Gimp, it's 
> either a matter of estimating numbers (for a quick, casual job on visual 
> media), or select, copy, paste into new window. In the latter case, when 
> you save it, you have to find the directory and the file8749832710473name; 
> not fun. Also, I'm not practised at this; I'm no good at cropping with my 
> brain, so I had to zoom, resize the window, and select very carefully so 
> selecting didn't move the image in the window.
>
> In Plan 9, which isn't even made for the job, it's not without its 
> frustrations, but it's got fewer of them than the Gimp. Open the image in 
> page; use the plumber or otherwise enter the full path so you can 
> copy/paste it later. Zoom and adjust the window as you like. In another 
> window, grep for the filename (or the directory, or whatever,) in 
> /dev/wsys/*/label, and type cd and send the directory part. (Of course, 
> copy/paste or send the file name.) Then:
>     crop -i 4 window | topng > path/filename.png
> This is the part where you'll likely want to copy the full original path. 
> That's one done. On to the next image, which presumably is open in the same 
> instance of page so you don't have to cd or anything. `cat label` to get 
> its full name and path. (It's possible only 9front's page puts the path in 
> the label, I don't know.)

To be fair, if you're using a command line, you might as well be using 
ImageMagick (not criticizing your points or anything, just playing devil's 
advocate).

>
> It's an operating system with few pretensions and only clunky image editing 
> tools, versus a powerful two-decade-mature image editing suite. Loading and 
> saving the files is no worse in Plan 9 than it is in the Gimp with its 
> oh-so-modern file selector, and the actual cropping part is easier in Plan 9!
>
>
> If anyone's waiting for news of my OS where everything is done from an 
> interpreter prompt, I got distracted for a while but I'm on it again now. 
> I'm staying with Forth but looking at alternatives to swap drop and roll -- 
> I mean stack manipulation primitives. Not to start a discussion here, but 
> I've decided it will have a single tree of names for all permanent storage 
> despite supporting architectures without a filesystem. Disk blocks could be 
> a directory of numbers under /b0, /b1 etc. OFW's non-volatile environment 
> variables could be a single-level directory under /nv. Actual local 
> filesystems, including the host's, could go under /f. Perhaps other 
> resources could go in the same tree as virtual files, but I'm not building 
> that bridge until I see the river. It's off topic for this list, so perhaps 
> mail replies to me privately?

While I'm replying here, might as well point out that, if you're going to 
do this, I think one thing that could maybe be interesting would be for the 
files to potentially contain rich data, not just plain text? Kind of like 
TempleOS or systemd's journal does.

>
> Any suggestions for a mailing list provider? My primary requirement is low 
> maintenance. I see many projects use Google Groups, but would like 
> suggestions for others if you have them.
>

Google Groups and Freelist are the best. Google Groups has a terrible UI 
but also has better spam filters IME.

> --
> The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne. -- Chaucer
>