An Idea for a Simple (ish) Way to Implement Better Shape Tools in GIMP
Operating System: All
Description of the feature
The current workflow for creating shapes in GIMP is through the selection tools. For example, you grab the Ellipse select tool, then click and drag your mouse on the canvas and release to create a circle selection. Then, you go to the "Paths" dialogue and convert the selection to a path. From there, you can scale the path up or down, or stroke or fill the path. Of course, you can also scale the selection up or down and fill the selection.
What if the shape select tools (ellipse select and rectangle select) were tweaked slightly to accommodate the option to immediately draw a shape using a path instead of a selection? For example, the user clicks a radio button labeled "Draw Selection" or "Draw Path," and if the "Draw Path" option is selected, it displays additional options for interacting with the path (see attached photo below).
Perhaps this is me being naïve because I'm not a developer, but one implementation of this could be that you somehow script it so that when a person draws the shape with the selection area, the selection is automatically converted to a path upon release of the mouse (as if the user clicked "Selection to Path," but without them needing to click anything). Or, the path could be drawn upon hitting the enter key, thus allowing the user to adjust the area first before finalizing the drawing of the shape (and telling GIMP when to execute drawing the path).
Another option, which is more simple, is to have a "Selection to Path" button directly inside the Tool Options for both shape selection tools (see other attached photo). That way the user doesn't have to navigate to a new dialogue and find the small button that performs this feature (in the paths dialogue). It would essentially be a shortcut key for the action.