NAME
    Gimp - Perl extension for writing Gimp Extensions/Plug-ins/Load
    & Save-Handlers

WHY
    Well, scheme (which is used by script-fu), is IMnsHO the
    crappiest language ever (well, the crappiest language that one
    actually can use, so it's not _that_ bad). Scheme has the worst
    of all languages, no data types, but still using variables. Look
    at haskell to see how functional is done right.

    I'd loved to write a haskell interface instead, but it was sooo
    much easier in perl (at least for me..), so here's the Gimp <->
    Perl interface, mostly a direct libgimp interface. Needless to
    say, it was (is) very instructive, too.

SYNOPSIS
      use Gimp;
      
      also:
      
      use Gimp::Util;
      use Gimp::OO;
      use Gimp::Net;
      
      all these have their own manpage.

  IMPORT TAGS

    :consts
        Export useful constants, like RGB, RUN_NONINTERACTIVE etc..

    :procs
        Export all functions (including all functions from the pdb).

DESCRIPTION
    Sorry, not much of a description yet. It took me exactly 9 hours
    to get to version 0.02, so don't expect it to be perfect.

    Look at the sample plug-ins (well, _the_ sample plug-in) that
    comes with this module. If you write other plug-ins, send them
    to me! If you have question on use, you might as well ask me
    (although I'm a busy man, so be patient, or wait for the next
    version ;)

    It might also prove useful to know how a plug-in is written in
    c, so have a look at some existing plug-ins in C!

    Anyway, feedback is appreciated, otherwise, I won't publish
    future version.

    And have a look at the other modules, Gimp::Util and Gimp:OO.

    Some noteworthy limitations (subject to be changed):

    *
    main() doesn't take arguments, but instead relies on the global
    variables origargc and origargv to do it's job.
    *
    callback procedures do not return anything to The Gimp, not even a status
    argument, which seems to be mandatory by the gimp protocol (which is
    nowhere standardized, though).
    *
    possible memory leaks everywhere... this is my first perl extension ;) Have
    a look, correct it, send me patches!
    *
    this extension may not be thread safe, but I think libgimp isn't
    either, so this is not much of a concern...
    *
    I wrote this extension with 5.004_57 (thread support), so watch out!
SUPPORTED GIMP DATA TYPES
    Gimp supports different data types like colors, regions,
    strings. In perl, these are represented as:

    INT32, INT16, INT8, FLOAT, STRING
        normal perl scalars. Anything except STRING will be mapped
        to a perl-double.

    INT32ARRAY, INT16ARRAY, INT8ARRAY, FLOATARRAY, STRINGARRAY
        array refs containing scalars of the same type, i.e. [1, 2,
        3, 4]. (not yet supported).

    COLOR
        on input, either an array ref with 3 elements (i.e.
        [233,40,40]) or a X11-like string is accepted ("#rrggbb").

    REGION
        Not yet supported.

    DISPLAY, IMAGE, LAYER, CHANNEL, DRAWABLE, SELECTION
        These will be mapped to opaque scalars. In reality these are
        small integers (like file descriptors).

    BOUNDARY, PATH, STATUS
        Not yet supported.

Exported functions
    set_trace (traceflags)
        Tracking down bugs in gimp scripts is difficult: no sensible
        error messages. If anything goes wrong, you only get an
        execution failure. This function is never exported.

        traceflags is any number of the following flags or'ed
        together.

    TRACE_NONE  nothing is printed.

    TRACE_CALL  all pdb calls (and only podb calls!) are printed with
                arguments and return values.

    TRACE_TYPE  the parameter types are printed additionally.

    TRACE_NAME  the parameter names are printed.

    TRACE_DESC  the parameter descriptions.

    TRACE_ALL   anything.

    gimp_main ()
        Should be called immediately when perl is initialized.
        Arguments are not yet supported. Initializations can later
        be done in the init function.

    gimp_install_procedure(name, blurb, help, author, copyright, date, menu_path, image_types, type, [params], [return_vals])
        Mostly same as gimp_install_procedure. The parameters and
        return values for the functions are specified as an array
        ref containing either integers or array-refs with three
        elements, [PARAM_TYPE, \"NAME\", \"DESCRIPTION\"].

    progress_init (message)
        Initializes a progress bar.

    progress_update (percentage)
        Updates the progress bar.

    Some functions that have a different calling convention than pdb
    functions with the same name are not visible in the perl module.

AUTHOR
    Marc Lehmann, pcg@goof.com

SEE ALSO
    perl(1), gimp(1), Gimp::Util.