alexo

I think that it makes sense to offload some of this work to the plugin writers and automate the rest. For example, when publishing a plugin, its author will fill in a short template with the plugin name, version number, release date of the version, etc. and will update it in It can be either in the first post of the corresponding thread, or externally, and can be scrapped on a schedule. I am basing this suggestion on Notepad++. It has a built-in plugin manager that shows which plugins are available, installed, updated, and incompatible:

All good! By the way, is there a way to quickly check all installed plugins for updates?

Does the "release" date for a plugin specify the initial release, the latest release, or something else?

Attached: screenshots + reports of plugins Yes, I now realize that BoltBait's plugins need updating, but I believe there are others. temp.zip

Is it possible to install the 5.0 beta and 4.x side by side?

Is it possible to to have a plugin compatibility feature for 5.x that will allow older plugins to work with it? I was surprised when I installed the alpha that many of the plugins I have did not show at all, and the one that I use the most (Content Aware Fill) crashed on invocation. Some of the plugins are not longer maintained but are still useful, and it will be a shame if they are rendered inoperative by the upgrade.

That is correct of course, and it's the reason I said "may have" above. It could serve as a flag to look at the post, since the process is manual. A diff from the previous version would make it easier to distinguish between an actual update and fix. Still not a good solution but it could work. A better approach would be to look for a distinctive pattern within the message body (Such as "~~version=1.2.3.4~~" for example) and let plugin authors know that if they include it and keep it updated, an automated system could track the versioning. The ones that want to take advantage of the feature will do it.

Thank you for the explanation, EER. I'm just going to brainstorm a little... I assume (and please correct me if I am wrong) that the plugin uses the data from the plugin index, which tracks the posts in the forum, either automatically or manually. The most effective way of doing it IMHO would be to scrape the data directly from the DB. Even if some manual massaging would be needed, it would still be a good starting point. I do not have access to the Invision DB schema so I cannot say whether it tracks the modification time of edited posts, but I know that most (all?) other BBS systems do, and if that information is available, then it could indicate that a new version may have become available. Just a thought.

I don't know if I have the time and knowledge to work on it. If the index does not contain the upload timestamp and/or file hash then obviously it is going to be difficult to do something like this.

I don't know what the index contains, or where it comes form. I did not see that information in the thread.

Doesn't the plugin download an index? It must come from somewhere.

Since the Plugin Browser has knowledge of both the plugins installed on the users system and the available plugins, it would be nice to show which plugins are out out of date. The Notepad++ Plugin Admin and the Cygwin installer have this functionality.

I've been playing with it a little lately in both PDN and Gimp and noticed that the Gimp plugin usually gives me better results and is also significantly faster, especially on large images. Given that it is basically the same algorithm, I wonder what may cause it.

Thanks, that fixed it.

Immediate crash when clicking on the "Image" dropdown menu. Crash log attached. Reverted to 4.0.21 pdncrash.4.log

Getting errors when using lasso selected regions: File: C:\Program Files\paint.net\Effects\ContentAwareFill.dll Name: ContentAwareFill.ContentAwareFillEffect Version: 1.3.0.0 Author: null54 Copyright: Copyright © 2018 Nicholas Hayes (aka null54) Website: https://forums.getpaint.net/index.php?showtopic=112730 Full error message: PaintDotNet.WorkerThreadException: Worker thread threw an exception ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at ContentAwareFill.ContentAwareFillEffect.OnConfigDialogProgress(Int32 value) at ContentAwareFill.Resynthesizer.Synthesize(Int32 pass, Func`1 abortCallback) at ContentAwareFill.Resynthesizer.ContentAwareFill(Func`1 abortCallback) at ContentAwareFill.ContentAwareFillEffect.OnSetRenderInfo(EffectConfigToken parameters, RenderArgs dstArgs, RenderArgs srcArgs) at PaintDotNet.Effects.BackgroundEffectRenderer.ThreadFunction() in D:\src\pdn\src\PaintDotNet\Effects\BackgroundEffectRenderer.cs:line 225 --- End of inner exception stack trace --- at PaintDotNet.Effects.BackgroundEffectRenderer.DrainExceptions() in D:\src\pdn\src\PaintDotNet\Effects\BackgroundEffectRenderer.cs:line 418 at PaintDotNet.Effects.BackgroundEffectRenderer.Abort() in D:\src\pdn\src\PaintDotNet\Effects\BackgroundEffectRenderer.cs:line 374 at PaintDotNet.Effects.BackgroundEffectRenderer.Start() in D:\src\pdn\src\PaintDotNet\Effects\BackgroundEffectRenderer.cs:line 320 at PaintDotNet.Menus.EffectMenuBase.<>c__DisplayClass42_5.<RunEffectImpl>b__5() in D:\src\pdn\src\PaintDotNet\Menus\EffectMenuBase.cs:line 1032

The problem is that if I want to move the slider from the default 50 to say 12, the process starts as soon as I start moving the slider, before it reaches the mark. Then I have to wait for it to finish (can take 20 second's or so), then try to trigger it again, which is problem when the slider is already in the correct position, so I end up running it twice more. It is an unnecessary inconvenience.

A problem that iy have with this plugin is that it immediately starts working when I change the settings, even if I am not done changing them, and then I have to wait a long time for it to finish only to update the settings again. It would be better to have an "apply" button.

Which ironically does not work with selections.

I agree with MJW on this one. The plugin requires a selection, and I don't see much of a difference between it's positioning and the "feather selection" one. My vote is for selection.

Thank you null54, I've been waiting for a long time for something like this!

OK, figured out how to do it manually Start with layer #1: the wood texture background Add layer #2: a copy of #1 Add layer #3: The text. Black color, anti-aliasing off Select text using magic wand, global, zero % tolerance Switch to layer #2 and delete selection Delete layer #3 Add new layer #3: a copy of layer #2 Select cut out text as above, then invert selection Feather selection, 1 pixel, preserve edges Switch to layer #2, use Hue/Saturation to set lightness to zero Reduce layer opacity (I used 50) Switch to layer #1 and use Hue/Saturation to lighten it up (I used 30) Done. Thanks for your help!

Thanks guys, checking... Re font: I was thinking maybe SF Scribbled Sans (http://www.dafont.com/sf-scribbled-sans.font) or Stan's hand (http://www.urbanfonts.com/fonts/Stan_s_Hand.htm)

I am looking for a way to make text appeared as if it was scratched or carved into wood using PDN 3.5.11 (old computer, don't ask...) Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Thank you for your reply, but it didn't work for me. Unfortunately, when I tried using it on black text, the result looked nothing like I need. I already have the background and only need the foreground text. Thank you.