Now that GIMP V2.10 is getting close I'm curious about intended compatibility with the .xcf files produced by prior versions of GIMP. In my case the prior versions are pretty much limited to Version 2.8.xx. However, I suspect for some others the question may be more general.
More specifically, I've been saving the .xcf files associated with images that have been edited using GIMP with the idea that I could, if desired, resume the editing activity from where I'd previously ended up. Some limited experimentation has shown that .xcf files created by GIMP 2.8 can be opened successfully by GIMP 2.10. I have yet to find one that fails but I'm not naive enough to think that might not happen. In the case of going the other way and trying to open .xcf files created by GIMP 2.10 with GIMP 2.8 it's been a mixed bag. Sometimes it fails and sometimes it doesn't. While I wouldn't expect backward compatibility it would be nice to have a way to figure out which version of GIMP created any particular file. How can that be done?
My inclination is to think that I need to keep GIMP 2.8 around for a while even after GIMP 2.10 is considered stable. However, the amount of rigor that might be appropriate for keeping track of which .xcf files were created with which version of GIMP depends to some extent on the design intention of the developers. Since the file extension (i.e., .xcf) appears to remain the same it is natural to expect compatibility. However, given the amount of new capability offered by GIMP 2.10 complete backward compatibility seems impossible although the intention could be that a .xcf file can at least be opened and that users are informed of compatibility issues.
Obviously this is a topic that one might expect to find covered in the User Manual which raises the question, "is there a 2.10 version?". If not when might such become available?
More specifically, I've been saving the .xcf files associated with images that have been edited using GIMP with the idea that I could, if desired, resume the editing activity from where I'd previously ended up. Some limited experimentation has shown that .xcf files created by GIMP 2.8 can be opened successfully by GIMP 2.10. I have yet to find one that fails but I'm not naive enough to think that might not happen. In the case of going the other way and trying to open .xcf files created by GIMP 2.10 with GIMP 2.8 it's been a mixed bag. Sometimes it fails and sometimes it doesn't. While I wouldn't expect backward compatibility it would be nice to have a way to figure out which version of GIMP created any particular file. How can that be done?
My inclination is to think that I need to keep GIMP 2.8 around for a while even after GIMP 2.10 is considered stable. However, the amount of rigor that might be appropriate for keeping track of which .xcf files were created with which version of GIMP depends to some extent on the design intention of the developers. Since the file extension (i.e., .xcf) appears to remain the same it is natural to expect compatibility. However, given the amount of new capability offered by GIMP 2.10 complete backward compatibility seems impossible although the intention could be that a .xcf file can at least be opened and that users are informed of compatibility issues.
Obviously this is a topic that one might expect to find covered in the User Manual which raises the question, "is there a 2.10 version?". If not when might such become available?
