"Moving selected pixels" ?

[anderpainter]

Hey guys,

 

I've noticed that with the latest P.n (v4.0.13),  when I copy an image and paste it as a New Image (Ctrl+Alt+V), a message appears:

 

Copying selected pixels...

 

...with a progress bar, and I must wait several seconds for the image to appear. Granted, I'm on an older, slower PC—but I still wondered why that was happening now, and if it was intentional.

 

And while I'm at it:

 

_ How come there's no way to preview a message here before you post it? This is the only forum I know where you can't do that.

 

_ In your version numbers, why do you follow this format?:

 

Paint.net 4.0.13 (Final 4.13.6191.1824)

 

Why not just call it v4.13, and follow that with the full number?

[Ego Eram Reputo]

2 hours ago, anderpainter said:

_ How come there's no way to preview a message here before you post it? This is the only forum I know where you can't do that.

 

The forum uses a WYSIWYG message interface. So what you see... is what you get.

 

2 hours ago, anderpainter said:

_ In your version numbers, why do you follow this format?:

 

Paint.net 4.0.13 (Final 4.13.6191.1824)

 

That's to do with versioning (ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_versioning). It gives geeks a heads-up on what is going on in the development cycle.

 

Visual Studio uses this format. I'm pretty sure the divisions are something like this:

 

Mj.mn.rev.b where

• Mj - major version
• mn - minor version
• rev - revision number
• b - build number (incremented each time the solution is built)

Quote

Why not just call it v4.13, and follow that with the full number?

 

Because things like releases due to bug fixes require a new revision number, not a new version number. Hence a bug fix on 4.0.12 creates 4.0.13 adding number of new features would be needed to increment the minor version number from 4.0 to 4.1.

 

Using this numbering system means we can glean that there have been 13 revisions to the original 4.0.0 code base, without significant change to the original 4.0.0 feature set.

 

(I'm sure Rick has a better answer than this).

[Rick Brewster]

Why not just call it v4.13, and follow that with the full number?

 

Yeah it's kind of just a way to advertise expectations. 4.0.13 is considered to be the 13th minor update to 4.0. So you shouldn't expect some big huge updates like you would with a 5.0, 4.5, or even 4.1 release. "Big huge" meaning big new features, major UI changes, etc.

 

You could argue that the Custom Shapes introduced in 4.0.6 is worthy of a bump to 4.1.0. However, I decided against it since it only affects those folks who're willing to go to the trouble of installing custom shape plugins. 

 

Over the last 2 years I've been doing more incremental updates, as opposed to big updates, so bumping the revision has been more appropriate. We could end up with something like, say, 4.0.58 ... is that something that should really be labeled as 4.1.0? Maybe ... but where do you draw the line? If each update is a minor revision, but the cumulative collection of updates is "worthy" of a larger bump, when does it get bumped to 4.1.0? There's actually a deep philosophical conversation that's possible there, and ultimately I'm not sure  Ultimately it's just a number and it's not really important, so I haven't stressed out over it too much. It's still "4.0" at the "core" so I've left that part alone for now.

 

Speaking of stress, it's also just less stressful for me to do these minor updates. I can fix something and add a small feature (like the "Corner size" for the Rounded Rectangle shape) and ship it within a week or two. If I do a "big update" then it's a lot of code churn, it needs a lot of testing, and it's a big deal. Things could break and require lots of fixes. If I only make a few changes then there's only a few things that can break for people. And doing these minor updates has been more compatible with what else is going on in my life right now (I just did a big cross-state move, for instance), while still letting me put out updates without big expectations of big new amazing features, so that's what I've been doing.

 

Ship early, ship often. Version numbers are just numbers, they don't mean as much as they used to compared to the era of "shrinkwrapped" software that could only ship once every year or two.

 

When an update pops up, install it