Comment 7 for bug 511646

My script renames the files using the "whole" number present in the Canon400D exif data:
When the 400D writes images on the card, it stores them in directories. the directories names get numbered too.
the "filennumber" variable returned by exiftool is structured: XXXX-YYYY ( XXXX is the number in the directory, YYYY is the same number as in the image filename: IMG_YYYY).
In RPD, I can only use the numbers from the file name and not the one from the exif metadata ( I can understand this behavior because the filenumber is specific to the Canon ).

The "CURRENT_PREFIX" variable in my script let me deal with resetting the file counter in the camera. If I decide to reset the file counter in the camera, I just have to change the prefix and I'll keep unique filename against my collection.

As of programming experience.. indeed I have some but not yet in python... nor with the plugin infrastructure you mentioned.
I'd be glad to contribute and help to enhance RPD. In my previous like using Windows, I coded a "poor man rpd" in C# (see http://prono.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/prono/trunk/Renamer/ for some code) running as a command line program. ( it still runs perfectly on mono)

As a quick "hack", I was thinking about a variation of the "text" part of the RPD user interface combined with a mechanism comparable to the ` (backtick) operator of the shell: execute the expression as command or python function and pass a few context parameters in the environement ( dir of current picture, name of file,...). use the standard output as value for the field.

Another kind of thing I'd like to do with RPD is create a directory with a sequence number in the name. BUT having the sequence being incremented based on the total size of the files presents in the directory ( eg: increment the sequence when 4gb of pictures are present in one folder. That could be handy when burning backups on dvd)

Thanks for you great piece of software !
Etienne