Non destructive editing and multiple XMP files for versioning?

As digikam moves to non-destructive editing, I think it might be 
worthwhile to revisit the 1-to-1 relationship of an original image file 
with its xmp sidecar file.

If a original image file, esp. a raw file, is thought of as a 
"negative", and edited versions as interpretations (or "prints"), the 
current versioning approach seems cumbersome.  All the different 
versions of the original would be the same, as all edits creating an 
interpretation are non-destructive.

This suggests that an xmp file needs to refer to it's immutable 
original, so that interpretations do not proliferate copies of the 
original.  Such an approach poses questions of how such a reference 
would survive changing path expressions, e.g. if an image or collection 
is moved, etc.

I would happily settle for a requirement that the xmp must be in the 
same directory as the original, or that the xmp refer to the original 
with a relative path expression.

Is this something developers are thinking about?

-- 
George Koulomzin
7 Bridge Hill Lane,
PO Box 781
Bridgehampton, NY, 11932
(m) 914-393-6179
(h) 631-537-4956
[email protected]