July 2005 - Inkscape Devel - Inkscape Mailman

News item about 0.42.1
by Bryce Harrington 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

I've posted a news item about the pending 0.42.1 release, to help warn people who might be running into trouble, and let them know that the best thing to do if they're having trouble is to sit tight until the fixed package is posted. If someone creates a wiki page for 0.42 installation workarounds, let me knwo. I can add a link to it from this news item. Bryce

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ACTION REQUIRED: binary files
by MenTaLguY 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO: update your working copy with "cvs update -A" IF YOU ARE WORKING ON A BRANCH: use "cvs update -A -r BRANCH" instead. Here's what's going on: It's been reported that bitmap image files in e.g. the tutorials are broken on the Win32 builds. The reason appears to be that images and binary files were often not checked in with -kb as they ought to have been. So folks checking those files out on Windows got corrupt versions. I've fixed now fixed this for existing files via cvs admin. I'm going to try to make it automatic for common file extensions from now on, but I'm sure I'll miss some. In the future, please specify -kb when you "cvs add" a binary file. Thank you. -mental

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Compiling under Win32 - isFinite() problem
by Omar Cornut 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

Hello, I'm trying to integrate bezier-utils.cpp into our own GPL software, and integrated necessary headers (from src/ and src/libnr/ especially). So in essence I'm not compiling Inkscape itself, but it's obvious that I would get the same problem if I tried to because the bug has no dependance. Using the 'isFinite' macro doesn't work. Source used: inkscape-0.42.tar.gz System: Win32 (Windows XP) Compiler: Microsoft Visual C++ .NET 7.1.3088 Compiler Log: Compiling... bezier-utils.cpp bezier-utils.cpp(598) : error C2039: 'isfinite' : is not a member of 'std' bezier-utils.cpp(598) : error C3861: 'isfinite': identifier not found, even with argument-dependent lookup [...] The lines with error uses macro 'isFinite' Macro 'isFinite' is defined in 'isnan.h' #if defined(__APPLE__) || defined(__isfinite) # define isFinite(_a) (__isfinite(_a)) /* MacOSX/Darwin definition */ #elif defined(isfinite) # define isFinite(_a) (isfinite(_a)) #else # define isFinite(_a) (std::isfinite(_a)) #endif The last one gets used under my build environment. Looking at mailing list archives, this seems to be a recurring problem, or at least it has been mentionned several times already. At suggested in 'isnan.h', this works: # define isFinite(_a) (!isNaN((_a) - (_a))) Full block, patched: #if defined(__APPLE__) || defined(__isfinite) # define isFinite(_a) (__isfinite(_a)) /* MacOSX/Darwin definition */ #elif defined(isfinite) # define isFinite(_a) (isfinite(_a)) #elif defined (WIN32) # define isFinite(_a) (!isNaN((_a) - (_a))) #else # define isFinite(_a) (std::isfinite(_a)) #endif Not sure if it is the best solution. A specialized isfinite() could possibly be faster but I can't find an implementation on my system. I'm wondering how the official Win32 EXE are getting compiled and if different distributions of MS Visual C++ librairies have some effect on this (probably), so don't take the above patch as taken. In any case, source code from Inkscape 0.42 doesn't work here so it should be worth discussing/fixing it. Thank you all, Inkscape is excellent piece of software. Omar Cornut

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Re: [Inkscape-user] Inkscape for windows and extension dependencies
by Adib Taraben 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

Ted Gould schrieb: > On Fri, 2005-07-29 at 08:17 +0200, Adib Taraben wrote: > >>This problem is about the inkscape\share\extensions\eps_input.inx file. >> >>it looks for a "gs" in your path: >> <dependency type="executable">gs</dependency> >> >>In order to have this done you need to have ghostscript in your PATH. >>add "C:\program files\gs\gs8.51\bin" to PATH >>and rename gs into gswin32c.exe in the inx file > > > Oh, cool. So how do we want to handle this in the future? Have > two .inx files, one for windows and one for everyone else? Do the > windows packagers have any ideas? > > --Ted Does somebody knows how that works for Mac ? How are extension dependencies handled in other (multiplatform)applications (ai/gimp/firefox)? Maybe we add a special windows option "path to application" that contains the full path+application name for that like "C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.51\gswin32c.exe". Also thinkable is a menu like in firefox to edit settings for the different extensions. Any input is welcome, Adib. ---

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Inkscape in Top Ten on SourceForge
by Bryce Harrington 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

Hey all, I just noticed, for the first time ever we've gotten into the top ten list of most active projects on SourceForge. Inkscape is #6. :-) http://sourceforge.net/top/mostactive.php?type=week Our percentile rank is 99.996. :-) Bryce

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Update of win32 libs
by Bob Jamison 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

While looking at the buglist, I noticed more than one mention of a missing symbol in pango.dll. This can happen if Gtk or Pangomm do not find a symbol they need. So I checked the site, and there is a new pango win32 bugfix build, and a Gtkmm bugfix release that includes, among other things, the TreeViewColumn export fix. So I assembled these two into the libs, which are here: http://inkscape.org/win32/gtk26-050729.7z If you are a win32 builder, let me know how they work. I -hope- that this takes care of the missing symbol problem. I know that there are 3 missing symbols from atk.dll, but we will likely not encounter those. Little problems like these are "upstream," and we can only report them. It would be wonderful if we could build the whole dependency tree with Mingw from source all the way up to Gtkmm and libxslt, so that we could help find these problems and lend assistance in fixing them. Maybe we can talk with the Gtk/Gtkmm guys and see about doing just that. Bob

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Anyone live near Enschede, Netherlands?
by Jon Phillips 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

Hello, I am not able to attend a svgopen.org in Enschede, yet have a paper, Introduction to the Open Clip Art Library and am scheduled to present this in Enschede as part of svgopen.org for 2005. Would anyone be willing to present the project on my behalf? I have the slides, paper, and talk all prepared, and it would just be a matter of schmoozing and talking with participants. If I can't find someone to do this, then I will have to remove the presentation and maybe paper from the conference...which I really don't want to do. Please contact me if you would like to attend and present Inkscape and the Open Clip Art Library at this conference. Thanks! Jon -- Jon Phillips San Francisco, CA USA PH 510.499.0894 jon@...235... http://www.rejon.org MSN, AIM, Yahoo Chat: kidproto Jabber Chat: rejon@...896... IRC: rejon@...897... Inkscape (http://inkscape.org) Open Clip Art Library (www.openclipart.org)

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[matthew.squires@...854...: Re: [Inkscape-devel] Google Summer of Code updates needed]
by Bryce Harrington 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

Thanks for the status update Mark, I hope we'll be able to see your dxf conversion code before too long. A few people have had questions regarding implementation approach that this will help address. Good luck, Bryce ----- Forwarded message from Matt Squires <matthew.squires@...854...> ----- > Hi all! > > One of the key, oft-proven principles of Open Source development is > "Release Early, Release Often". This is important because it makes it > easier for other people to help you. > > Michael, David, Greg, and Matthew, can each of you report in on where > you are in your work, how we can help you, and what you might be able to > add to CVS within the next week or so? > > (Also, if you have any questions about getting access to or using CVS, > please just ask and we'll get you set up.) > > Thanks, > Bryce > Hi, I was making good progress and then the group that funds my PhD research said they would take away funding unless we demonstrate some specific details. Needless to say my evenings are now spent in the lab instead of coding. I was importing most common elements common to dxf and svg, and was starting work on elements that were not common. The deadline is Aug 10th for the funding, so after then I hope to hit SOC hard after the 10th and finish it up. As far as exporting from SVG to DXF, there is some coding but as I understand the finer points of the two formats there is not much more than parsing the data and then saving to a file. I will try to make some time to release some code that can be tested for the import. However don't hold your breath... Matt ----- End forwarded message -----

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[dneale@...936...: Inkscape]
by Bryce Harrington 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

Hi Douglas, Thanks for the info, I'm passing it along to the list. One of the differences between Inkscape and commercial applications like Quark and Adobe Illustrator is that many of our extensions come from external contributors, and thus there can be some implementational variability from one to the next. For instance, we allow them to be written in a variety of different scripting languages. This is a strength from the standpoint of allowing us to incorporate a lot of creative new features, but of course also has the weakness that we cannot enforce the same level of standardization that commercial development companies can. However, we have recognized that we definitely need to work in improving the way extensions work, and are hoping to focus on making them better and easier to add in over the next several months, so your input here is quite relevant, thanks! Bryce ----- Forwarded message from Douglas Neale <dneale@...936...> ----- Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 14:32:45 +0100 From: Douglas Neale <dneale@...936...> To: bryce@...1... Subject: Inkscape Hi Bryce, As there isn't a 'suggestions' link on the site and you are top of the 'hero' list, you are getting this email. First of all, congratulations on what seems to be an awesome product. I picked up a reference to it this morning on the Adobe forum posting and immediately downloaded it and checked it out under XP. Will do the Mac OSX check tomorrow. I have a small suggestion for you to pass on (or ignore if you wish) which relates to the discussion on extension architecture. Firstly, let me explain that I write Quark Xtensions and that Quark provide a fairly robust procedure when starting up so that Xtensions are handled properly. >From the perspective of the Xtension code you first try to login with a unique code (normally the developer ID+ a fourth letter) and if you get back an error code you shut down the Xtension, after displaying an optional error message quoting the error code received. >From the perspective of the user, there is a Xtension Manager item on the Utilities Menu which lists all Xtensions, loaded or not, which can be individually 'examined' to show some detail of each. Each Xtension is written in C and compiled as a DLL and is just dropped into the Xtension folder alongside all its fellow Xtensions. Any other installation requirements do not concern Quark and can be handled any way you choose. Quark supply a header file and a library file of all their internal functions which are visible to the Xtension developer. Needless to say, there are several thousand functions in that library. Adobe do an almost identical thing, except that their Plugins are written in C++. I am not advocating that you adopt the Quark/Adobe solution in toto, I am just pointing out that the management of plugins is important and can thus influence the choice of architecture. The clashing of mutually incompatible plugins trying to use the same resources can be a real pain. Regards, Douglas Neale ----- End forwarded message -----

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Getting involved
by Tarjei Knapstad 29 Jul '05

29 Jul '05

> > Bryce, are you going to update the roadmap? > Yes. It would be nice if someone could go through and mark all the > completed stuff done, and/or delete tasks that are no longer needed. > > I"m also hoping to continue working on the test system and continuing > the gtkmm work on SPView over the next few months. I"m also playing > with Cairo a bit, but only experimentally. Hi! I've had an eye on Inkscape for some time now as an interesting project that I might want to get involved in. As I've started to get some more time on my hands lately, I guess now might be a good time to jump in :) I've got about 6 years of C++ inexperience (the last 4 professionally) and I've done quite a bit of UI code (gtkmm in the beginning, but Qt for the past 4 years). I've got some comments/questions first though, related to the quoted text above: - An updated roadmap/tasklist would be very nice, looking forward to that. - I'd be interested in helping out with the Gtkmm work, so I'm curious about the state of affairs in that department. Does the current gtkmm stuff live in a separate branch in CVS? I've done some gtkmm/libsigc++ code in the past (will have to read up on the API's again :)). I'll read through the Rearchitecture discussion in the Wiki later tonight to try to get a better understanding of where you're headed (are these documents fairly up to date btw?). - Cairo is something else I'm interested in, but I'm guessing this is a bit further down the road? - It would be nice to have faster rendering of the documents under windows (I think I read a bug report on this). Is there any interest in profiling and optimising the current code, or is the move to Cairo as a vector drawing backend meant to take care of this so that it would just be a waste of time? In any case, I'll start out with familiarising myself with the current codebase first. If any of you current developers have any small/minor tasks I could get my feet wet in that would be great (speaking of which: is the InkscapeJanitors page in the Wiki still valid?) Cheers, -- Tarjei Knapstad

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