is .xcf the default/popular format for GIMP users?

I recently got an email from someone who uses GIMP, ArtRage,
ArtWeaver, Twistedbrush, Project Dogwaffle and a few other tools for
painting. He sent me a few samples of his artwork, most in Jpeg or Png
format, but also a few in files ending in .xcf

Needless to say, WIndows didn't know how to show a thumbnail. And I
didn't see Irfanview do much with it. Turned out XnView was ok with it
and showed images. Then I read about the format in wikipedia and found
it was described as the native format of GIMP. Silly me for not knowing.

Then I read about other programs which also use XCF or at least have
the ablity to open and view it if there's just one layer. XnView was
mentioned, and then... aha, ImageMagick!

Heureka, our Project DOgwaffle uses ImageMagick for file import/export
when it's not the native Targa format. SO I tried and woohoo success -
Dogwaffle opened the xcf images just fine. Great!

So I'm curious, does everyone here use XCF as the one and only format
for WIP before saving to other formats if final integration is due in
other toolls or save to jpeg for web, email, etc?


Would be nice to get some insights from developers - is XCF (one of)
the format(s) of the future? A common layered metafore? should we look
seriously into support xcf natively and wth layers in DOgwaffle?

Does XCF also support image sequences, for example could an animation
sequnce from DOgwaffle be saved for import as layered image stack in
the GIMP, if that makes sense?

thanks for any tips.

-Philip
thebest3d.com - beyond digital painting