The move tool has the ability to do just that. Click on the layer to select it. That should be sufficient, isn't it?

Okay, again, my fault, I didn't realize that one can just switch modes with holding shift-key or selecting "Layer or guide" with the move-tool-dialog.

But what if I have multiple layers overlapping each other with their boundaries falling together? Or a larger layer overlaps a smaller one? How does the move tool "know" which layer to move/select? It doesn't. It selects/moves the upper layer. Wouldn't it be nice to have a context-menu or whatever to select a layer out of a list which contains only layers currently under the mouse cursor?
This case happens very often. For example many special effects like glow, shadow, bevel etc. work like I said: one layer overlaps another. A quicker way to select a layer would improve usability and dramatically speed up working with documents having many layers.

You mean like the layer selection popup you get when pressing Alt-Tab? If I remember correctly, there is already an enhancement request asking for changing this popup so that it only shows layers at the cursor position.

Alt-Tab? This is a combination used by many window managers including KDE as a default for switching between applications. So this doesn't really work when it is set by default for the Gimp. Also, if the list of layers showed by that dialog doesn't differ from the other layer selection dialog it isn't of any great help when working with a lot of layers. Hm, I couldn't find the bug which already requests this feature. Where is it, so I can hop' on and contribute?

You can usually press another modifier to get around conflicting key combos. For example, on Microsoft windows, Ctrl+Alt+Tab works fine.

And it has been changed in CVS HEAD to use ctrl+tab to navigate the
layers top-down, and ctrl+shift+tab to navigate bottom-up.
There's no alt key involved any longer.

The other bug is closed: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=86274

Maybe it's worth reopening and rethinking?

Which brings me to another usability enhancement: the "I-don't-want-cramps-in-my-hand"-feature. But thats off-topic :) and perhaps a complete shortcut proposal is needed. Well, to be on-topic again, can I help somehow to speed up the acceptance of this layer-selection-enhancement? I have little coding experience, perhaps I can help also there.

I just read the comments of #86274, but I must say I don't think that the alt-tab thing is a solution. That way I just hop from one layer to another. Lets say I have an image with 50 layers (that is not unusual)... well, then I am still seeking for the right layer. The solution with the context menu coming up when you hold down the mouse at least for 2 seconds seems good for me. Better (and perhaps easier to implement and with lesser conflicts) would be a shortcut (ctrl-anything) to activate a menu with layers that are under the mouse cursor.

Something tells me what this could be a byproduct of layer groups, for example a temporary one for the "targeted" layers.

The layers dialog is better suited than a context menu, as it wouldn't limit the available action to selecting the layer.

Well, but isn't that layer dialog outside the image area? So we would have to move the mouse cursor out of the image area to select the layer. (see tc attachment). I think from the usability point of view a context menu would fit best.

Created attachment 65579 [details]
Image showing a context menu for layer selection (proposal)

Instead of attaching mockups for a feature that has already been discussed in all details, we should think about reopening bug #86274. But most importantly, we need someone to write the code.

I am sorry, I wasn't sure if everybody understands that this feature isn't just another feature, the main purpose is that we can work faster. So every "new" layer list that is far away from the current mouse cursor location isn't a solution to the problem here.

Marking as duplicate of the reopened bug #86274.

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 86274 ***