From https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gthumb, champlain is an optional library.
Other optional libraries:
- libraw - some support for RAW photos
- librsvg - display SVG images
- libwebp - display and save WebP images
- libjxl - display JPEG XL images
- libheif - display and save AVIF images
- lcms2, colord - color profile support
- champlain, champlain-gtk - view the place a photo was taken on a map
- clutter, clutter-gtk - enhanced slideshow effects
- libsoup, json-glib, webkit2gtk, libsecret - upload images to and download images from some web services such as Facebook, Flickr
- brasero - write images and comments to CDs
- bison, flex - web albums
That being said, the reason why libchamplain ( map support ) is disabled by default, might have to do something with the below explanation.
configure.ac ( before 2017 ):
C_ARG_ENABLE([libchamplain],
[AS_HELP_STRING([--enable-libchamplain],[compile code that uses the libchamplain library (crashes frequently)])],,
[enable_libchamplain=no])
which later became the following after the meson port.
meson-options.txt ( after 2017 )
option('libchamplain',
type : 'boolean',
value : false,
description : 'Use libchamplain to show the position the image refers to'
)
I’m not sure if "libchamplain" still should be disabled by default in gThumb. You can take it up with the gThumb maintainers by raising an issue at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gthumb/-/issues/
In general, when something is disabled by default in "configure.ac" / "meson-options.txt", there is usually a reason behind this, which you can always dig by doing a simple "git log" ( as I did in this case ).
Cheers!