November 2003 - Inkscape Devel

DOM SVG Canvas
by Ian Grant 27 Nov '03

27 Nov '03

I want to write a mapping/GIS application. I was hoping to find an 'SVG canvas' library that I could use to render the graphics. Librsvg is not ideal because it simply renders the entire SVG document at once. Rather I am looking for something that watches a DOM tree and renders changes as they occur. Do Inkscape or sodipodi have any such internal structure, or could they be used as a basis for such a thing? Seems like people are going to be writing a lot of low-level SVG rendering code otherwise.

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BORKEN merge
by MenTaLguY 27 Nov '03

27 Nov '03

Just a quick heads-up; I've merged the "BORKEN" UI branch to HEAD. It still needs a lot of refinements, but I think it's far along enough now to merge. Have a look at Bulia's recent post and on the Wiki for more stuff we can do. -mental

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Re: [Inkscape-devel] keyboard issues
by bulia byak 27 Nov '03

27 Nov '03

> bb> 3. Several people suggested that making keyboard shortcuts user-modifiable and providing "profiles" imitating other vector editors. This is an attractive idea but there are some issues. I added a > bb> brief overview of this to the KeyboardShortcutsToDo. > it would be a great feature. OK, so whoever is not busy coding (and especially fixing bugs) at the moment could start working towards this. Please pick your favorite non-Inkscape vector app and make a list of its shortcuts and corresponding functions. Please also categorize each function into one of the following groups: 1. There is a corresponding function (with the same or different shortcut) in shortcuts.c (i.e. this is a global verb in Inkscape). 2. There is no such function in shortcuts.c but such a function is listed on the KeyboardShortcuts wiki page (which tracks all shortcuts currently implemented in Inkscape). 3. There's no such function in Inkscape, but it would be relatively straightforward to implement it. 4. There's no such function in Inkscape, and it's not clear how to implement it (i.e. we don't have such a tool, or palette, etc.). Please use Wiki for creating your lists. You can link them from under "Interface discussions" on the Wiki front page. > corel has something similar in its coreldraw > and corel photopaint - but you can switch not only shortcuts but also > a layout of toolbars to imitate illustrator or photoshop > (respectively). That's I don't see how to do. (Especially given that Illustrator and Photoshop do not have a fixed layout.) And in any case, right now the dialog layout is very rigid and messy in the code ("boilerplate"), so this has to wait until we switch to something more flexible (Glade?). -- ___________________________________________________________ Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm

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big dialogs upgrade
by bulia byak 27 Nov '03

27 Nov '03

Today's a big day: finally I made all dialogs unsinkable, defocusable, closeable, and remembering position across sessions. Well, not exactly all, because I decided that a number of dialogs can be simply removed so I did not bother upgrading them. See the new wiki page: http://www.inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?DialogsReorganization for my plans on what to do with what dialogs. COmments are welcome as always. So, please test the latest CVS and report any problems. There are probably quite a few of them because there were lots of changes in lots of files. Other wiki pages created or updated today: http://www.inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?TextUsability - specific ideas for the text tool and dialog http://www.inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SecondaryToolbar - this is what's brewing inside BORKEN, and it's cool! http://www.inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?PreferencesDialog - we need a big and impressive Preferences dialog, so add your ideas on what to put there http://www.inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?KeyboardProfiles - the discussion on keyboard profiles is now on a page of its own. Please be more active on the Wiki. All these pages and others will benefit from your input and ideas. Also, please test drag tolerance that I added yesterday. You may need to remove old ~/.inkscape/preferences file for the new ~/.inkscape/preferences.xml to work reliably (I could not find how the old file can break things, but looks like it does sometimes). -- ___________________________________________________________ Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm

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Re[2]: [Inkscape-devel] key bindings and documentation
by Yemu 26 Nov '03

26 Nov '03

JP> Okay, so I created some SVG keys. Man, it is amazing the bugs you find JP> when trying to design something simple like keys in Inkscape. JP> Anyway, please look over and make suggestions. Otherwise I will try and JP> use the wiki to add PNGs or GIFs of the keys to the keybinding page as JP> soon as possible. GULP. I've never tried that before, but hopefully can JP> conquer that task. hi jonathan! i made some changes to your keys. use them if you like (keys are little lighter and "less round") best regards yemu

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Re: [Inkscape-devel] bugs bugs bugs
by Robert Crosbie 26 Nov '03

26 Nov '03

Of course. See my Stability section in Wiki. Simply starting and quitting inkscape will leave over 3 megs of unfreed memory on my machine! Rob. http://members.rogers.com/rcrosbie >From: "Jon A. Cruz" <jon@...18...> >To: Robert Crosbie <swingincelt@...19...> >CC: inkscape-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net >Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] bugs bugs bugs >Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2003 08:57:59 -0800 > >Robert Crosbie wrote: > >> >>Relating to hammering out the bugs, I tried to compile inkscape with >>ElectricFence last night, but couldn't get inkscape to compile with it. I >>didn't have time to debug it, so I gave up and reverted back to my >>original configuration when it failed. > > >As an alternative, you might try running with valgrind. > >http://valgrind.kde.org/ > > > > >------------------------------------------------------- >This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program. >Does SourceForge.net help you be more productive? Does it >help you create better code? SHARE THE LOVE, and help us help >YOU! Click Here: http://sourceforge.net/donate/ >_______________________________________________ >Inkscape-devel mailing list >Inkscape-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net >https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/bcomm&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjoin.ms…

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Re: [Inkscape-devel] bugs bugs bugs
by Robert Crosbie 26 Nov '03

26 Nov '03

Relating to hammering out the bugs, I tried to compile inkscape with ElectricFence last night, but couldn't get inkscape to compile with it. I didn't have time to debug it, so I gave up and reverted back to my original configuration when it failed. If anyone else would like to try and get it to work, I'm sure it would help us in the long run. There definately are a lot of memory management issues. I simply borrowed some efence code from another projects configure.in, ran 'autogen.sh --with-efence' and tried to remake inkscape. Cheers, Rob. http://members.rogers.com/rcrosbie >From: Bryce Harrington <bryce@...1...> >To: <inkscape-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net> >Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] bugs bugs bugs >Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2003 21:36:10 -0800 (PST) > >On Tue, 25 Nov 2003, bulia byak wrote: > > I just put Inscape to a little real-world usability test by drawing > > several diagrams. While there are many small interface improvements I > > could think up for myself, the biggest problem were bugs. More > > specifically, two kinds of bugs: the undo bugs and save bugs. You run > > into them very often. I don't think we can release 0.36 with them. I > > urge everyone to please go to the tracker and fix as many as you > > can. Some of them must be pretty simple. > >Yes, this is an issue we'll need to hammer down prior to making a >release. > >But it isn't cause for alarm yet; this is normal for the development >process we're using. Since so many of us are working directly on the >codebase, it's going to get messy. This is why tracking, feature >freezing and bug hunts are critical parts of the process. (This is also >why modularity and testing frameworks are very important.) > >It is also important that we always test out each other's code. It's >very easy for us to focus on our own area of interest in the code, but >if we're going to succeed as a team, we do best to take some time to >review each other's work. Review is good for morale, good for quality, >and good for knowledge-transfer. > >So for right now, when anyone finds a bug, make sure it is listed in the >bug tracker at an appropriate criticality ranking, so we can be sure we >are not releasing Inkscape 0.36 with any critical bugs. > >Bryce > > > > >------------------------------------------------------- >This SF.net email is sponsored by: SF.net Giveback Program. >Does SourceForge.net help you be more productive? Does it >help you create better code? SHARE THE LOVE, and help us help >YOU! Click Here: http://sourceforge.net/donate/ >_______________________________________________ >Inkscape-devel mailing list >Inkscape-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net >https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/photos&pgmarket=en-ca&RU=http%3a%2f%2fjo…

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more BORKEN comments
by bulia byak 26 Nov '03

26 Nov '03

Mental, thanks for moving the secondary toolbar to the top. Now, like I said, it would be nice to move all tool options there (and remove the "tool options") dialog. However, this is not to be done indiscriminately, and other dialogs' content is sometimes appropriate for this secondary toolbar. I started a Wiki page, SecondaryToolbar - please review and add your ideas or comments. -- ___________________________________________________________ Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm

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BORKEN comments
by bulia byak 26 Nov '03

26 Nov '03

I finally upgraded my Mandrake so I could compile the BORKEN branch. Overall, very good work, thanks! I have only one suggestion: Can we please move the second toolbar with tool-specific buttons to the top of the window, making it a horizontal toolbar under the menu? Here are the advantages: - With two vertical toolbars side by side, it's not quite clear that the second is auxiliary to the first. The second one looks like a continuation of the first. When the toolbars are orthogonal, it's more intuitive IMHO. - With maximized window, two docked toolbars at left leave too much unused space beneath them. - If we make the auxiliary toolbar horizontal, we may not limit it to buttons only. In fact, the entire contents of the "tool options" dialog can be moved to that horizontal bar too. Then everything in that secondary toolbar, including both buttons and text fields, will change in concert upon tool switching, but the toolbar itself won't disappear or reappear (although it may be empty for some tools). I think it will be both convenient and intuitive. I did not invent this; what is described above is exactly the interface approach of Xara X. (Which is, by the way, despite its lack of SVG support, by far the most convenient and usable vector application I've ever seen. Way more convenient than Illustrator, and I'm not alone in that assessment. If we must imitate any one program, I'd choose Xara any day.) --bb -- ___________________________________________________________ Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm

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keyboard issues
by bulia byak 26 Nov '03

26 Nov '03

1. I fixed editability of text fields in the fill&stroke dialog (that was my error). I also added moving focus to the document when you press Enter in any of the fields (in that dialog only, for now). Now the dialog is completely usable by keyboard. Question: do we want to similarly move focus to the document upon activation of any other widgets, e.g. buttons? 2. This change gives me one more reason to not make dialog shortcuts toggles. This discussion is now on the KeyboardShortcutsToDo wiki page; please read and comment. Overall, I think the arguments against toggles are now more persuasive. 3. Several people suggested that making keyboard shortcuts user-modifiable and providing "profiles" imitating other vector editors. This is an attractive idea but there are some issues. I added a brief overview of this to the KeyboardShortcutsToDo. P.S. One of my messages seems to be lost - I don't see it in the list. Here it is again: There's a new release of Sodipodi. Looks like there are many changes there, and while most of them are in the internals (which I'm no expert in) some are in UI and I'd like to port at least some of them to Inkscape. Anyone else feeling that may be a good idea? Maybe we can add to the roadmap "review and merge good changes from Sodipodi"? -- ___________________________________________________________ Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm

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