This reading is also available in PDF.
Summary: In this reading, you will learn a bit about the
GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), an open-source alternative
to Photoshop.
Contents:
The GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP
, for short) is an
open-source, freely-distributed graphics editing program that can serve
as a reasonable alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Like Photoshop,
GIMP provides tools for both making new images and for manipulating
existing images.
GIMP distinguishes itself from Photoshop in three key ways: First,
it is an open source application, which means that you can get it for free
and (if you have enough talent) can even modify the source code. Second,
it is available on all three major operating system platforms (Mac, Windows,
and Unix/Linux). Third, and perhaps most importantly for this course,
GIMP is scriptable. In particular, you can interact with
GIMP using a Scheme-like language. You can use this language to give
simple commands or to write complex scripts.
We will explore these applications over the coming weeks.
As you probably know, the face of computing has changed significantly
in the past twenty or so years. Until the advent of reasonably priced
personal computers, most computing was done on large, shared, computer
systems. To simplify matters, we'll say that there were two basic kinds
of computing that happened then: business computing and academic/scientific
computing. (Yes, that's a significant simplification.)
In the business world, dominated by computers from IBM and
its associated operating systems, there was an assumption that software
either came with your computer or was purchased at a relatively high
price. In the academic world, most people who needed custom software wrote
it themselves and then shared it with their colleagues elsewhere (just
as scientists regularly share research results, at least in an ideal world).
With the advent of the personal computer, the realms mixed somewhat
(and, as importantly, expanded significantly). To many, this suggested
that the business model could be more widely adopted. That is, your
computer would come with a small, core, set of software and you'd buy
anything else you wanted or needed. (It took some time for this model
to develop; the first Macs shipped with free word-processing and drawing
programs.)
Many long-time computer programmers were upset at this commercialization.
In response, they began a number of endeavors to provide non-commercial
alternatives to the commercial software. Foremost among these endeavors
was the GNU (GNU's Not Unix) project, which evolved into the Free Software
Foundation (FSF). Richard Stallman, the driving force behind GNU/FSF
believed (and continues to believe) that software should be free (as
in freedom
). That is, if you own software, you should be free to
use it as you wish, to modify it to make it do other things, and to share
it with others. Stallman also believes strongly in community development, so
a requirement of his free software is that you share any useful changes
you make with the community.
The GNU project led to the development of Linux, one of the first free,
widely-used operating systems for personal computers. It also led
to the more general Open Source movement, which follows many of the
tenets of the FSF (particularly the distribution of the source code of
software, so that you can modify it), but permits a bit more of a
commercial spin on those tenets.
While Linux is clearly one of the great successes of the open source
movement, there have been many others. For example, the Apache Web
Server is an open source project that provides the most popular Web Server
and the MySQL project provides an open-source database management
system. Grinnell's spam filtering system is also open source software.
The Free Software Foundation continues to take the lead in many projects.
Many of the compilers (the programs that programmers use to build
programmers) used today are FSF products. The Gnome graphical user
interface that you've used all semester (the thing that provides windows
and icons on our Linux boxes) is an FSF product. The FSF also produces
alternatives to many commercial applications.
From your perspective, the most important aspect of open source software
is probably that it's free (as in free beer
): You can
get a copy from the Web without paying for it and you can legally use it.
Eventually, it may become important that it's modifiable (if
it doesn't do something you want it to do, you can change it yourself,
hire someone else to change it for your, or rely on the community to
change it). And, depending upon your perspective, it may become
important that it's unrestricted (or free as in freedom
).
Some of you may already have a political perspective that supports such
freedom. Others of you are likely to find it necessary.
As commercial software increasingly makes decisions as to what you can and
cannot do, you will find unrestricted software more convenient.
As the introduction suggested, one of the more notable recent efforts
of the FSF is GIMP. GIMP is a full-featured alternative to
Photoshop, with some features that Photoshop lacks.
While the point of this reading (and this course) is not to teach you about
open source software, it is important that you be able to get your own copy
of GIMP so that, if you wish, you can explore the interaction between
Scheme and graphics on your own computer. (You can also use it for your
normal graphics editing tasks.)
You can obtain your own copy of GIMP from http://www.gimp.org.
Mac users also need to install the X server, which should come on your install
disks.
This portion of the reading is forthcoming.
;
