November 2006 - Inkscape Devel

opacity and blur: 0.15 or 15%?
by bulia byak 19 Nov '06

19 Nov '06

Here's a usability question that I'd like to get some feedback on. Myself, I'm undecided. How to display and input values of opacity and blur? 1. As percent, 0 to 100, or 0.0 to 100.0. Pro: easier to pronounce; more common in "real life"; spinbutton can be shorter by one character (dot). Contra: requires a "%" label after the spinbutton; if the label is not there (as e.g. in the statusbar there's little room for it), it may be more difficult to guess, when you see e.g. "15", that the maximum is 100; requires a change from the Inkscape status quo. 2. As numbers from 0.0 to 1.0 (with two or three significant digits). Pro: no need for a % label; easier to guess what the maximum is (though still not entirely obvious, unless you have a slider too); no need to change the status quo. Contra: slightly more "geeky", more cumbersome to type and pronounce, requires slightly wider spinbutton. Opinions? -- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org

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NEW: file name entry field finally fixed
by bulia byak 18 Nov '06

18 Nov '06

* We removed the "hacked" filename entry field that we had added to the Open and Save dialogs because starting from version 2.10, GTK+ has finally restored this field in their standard file dialog (better late than never!). The standard field at the top of the dialog supports type-ahead find and performs the default dialog action (open or save) by pressing Enter, which means you can now do a quick Ctrl+O, Ctrl+V, Enter sequence to open the file whose path is in your clipboard (this closes a long-standing usability bug). Those who use older versions of GTK are advised either to upgrade to 2.10 or use Ctrl+L to open a pop-up filename box. (Our Windows builds are shipped with GTK+ 2.10.) -- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org

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Re: [Inkscape-devel] Extension Documentation
by Aaron Spike 17 Nov '06

17 Nov '06

Ted Gould wrote: > Yeah! Go Aaron! Well so far I haven't created much new text on the wiki, just moved it around. So let's give a round of applause to the folks that have added some docs recently. Thanks guys. > I actually have looked for that file on more than one occasion. Really, > if someone out there has a mailing list archive... I'd like to update > it with all the new fun things that have been added. Right under my nose the whole time! Sf.net's new interface makes it way easier for me to find things. http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/message.php?msg_id=11420660 I pasted it to the wiki. This was from a time before extensions had parameters and the autogui. Wow, things have come a long way since 2005-04-07. Aaron Spike

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[Fwd: [Inkscape-tracker] [ inkscape-Patches-1591723 ] patch to access potrace parameters within inkscape]
by Jon Phillips 17 Nov '06

17 Nov '06

Heya, all, this is why it is so good to keep our trackers nice and flowing...check the comments below...and I would like to say a big thanks to Alan and Bulia for spending so much time on cleaning up our trackers... Keeping the patches flowing is so helpful to bring in developers... Jon -------- Forwarded Message -------- > From: SourceForge.net <noreply@...34...> > To: noreply@...34... > Subject: [Inkscape-tracker] [ inkscape-Patches-1591723 ] patch to > access potrace parameters within inkscape > Date: Fri, 10 Nov 2006 15:40:07 -0800 > > Patches item #1591723, was opened at 2006-11-07 01:00 > Message generated for change (Comment added) made by sgimenez > You can respond by visiting: > https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=604308&aid=1591723&group_… > > Please note that this message will contain a full copy of the comment thread, > including the initial issue submission, for this request, > not just the latest update. > Category: Other > Group: None > Status: Open > Resolution: None > Priority: 8 > Private: No > Submitted By: Stéphane Gimenez (sgimenez) > Assigned to: Jon Phillips (kidproto) > Summary: patch to access potrace parameters within inkscape > > Initial Comment: > hi, > > I wanted to specify my own parameters when using > potrace within inkscape, so i did this patch. > > I guess it could be useful to everybody. > > note: this patch contains new translatable strings: > labels and tips. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > >Comment By: Stéphane Gimenez (sgimenez) > Date: 2006-11-11 00:40 > > Message: > Logged In: YES > user_id=727197 > > Ok, > * I've added authoring info. > * I put self-explained parameter titles, and parameters labels. > * and I killed unrelated cosmetic diff-hunks from the patch. > > Also, I plan to > * provide a rewritten rgb quantization algorithm, cause i > found the current one a bit slow and not enough accurate. > * apply the "turn to monochrome" pass before the > quantization pass in TRACE_QUANT_MONO mode, for improved > results. > * find a way not to apply the quantization pass twice (for > the preview and the result) when OK is pressed. > But after that, I'd like to help with cleaning up the dialog > and do the "advanced" thing :) > > And Thank you for such an enthusiastic feed-back ;) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Comment By: Jon Phillips (kidproto) > Date: 2006-11-09 19:59 > > Message: > Logged In: YES > user_id=914868 > > Cool, this patch looks awesome! A couple of things...could > you add your copyright and real name/email to each file that > you touched please. Also, please add your name to the > AUTHORS file and include this in your patch. > > Also, please add tooltips for the text labels for the 3 items. > > After you do this, I will commit the patch...cool! It works > great! > > Also, I would like to encourage you to submit more > patches...also, we would love to expose more features for > potrace and include other tracers...would you like to help > with this? > > We usually take 2 patches and then add a developer, you in > this case, to have full SVN access to our project... > > Cool? > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Comment By: Jon Phillips (kidproto) > Date: 2006-11-09 19:43 > > Message: > Logged In: YES > user_id=914868 > > Applied and am testing this one out...looks cool...we can > promote the advanced idea after the commit, but more > interested in getting it in... > > I like the variable names "TurdSize" hahahaha > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Comment By: Alan Horkan (horkana) > Date: 2006-11-08 16:10 > > Message: > Logged In: YES > user_id=402612 > > while it will be good to make these things possible adding > many more controls in the user interface complicates things > for ordinary users > > any chance the advanced options could be hidden behind a > disclosure triangle? > > (there are quite a few more things which could be done to > clean up the dialog but for the purposes of this patch I > dont want to overcomplicate matters) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > You can respond by visiting: > https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=604308&aid=1591723&group_… > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Using Tomcat but need to do more? Need to support web services, security? > Get stuff done quickly with pre-integrated technology to make your job easier > Download IBM WebSphere Application Server v.1.0.1 based on Apache Geronimo > http://sel.as-us.falkag.net/sel?cmd=lnk&kid=120709&bid=263057&dat=121642 > _______________________________________________ > Inkscape-tracker mailing list > Inkscape-tracker(a)lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-tracker -- 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...

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Extension Documentation
by Aaron Spike 16 Nov '06

16 Nov '06

People have been noticing the sad state of Extension System documentation frequently. I think we should change this. I've started reorganizing things on the wiki. I've taken an old mail from Ted and pasted it at: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ExtensionArchitecture Never seen a clearer description! http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ScriptingHOWTO describes in general terms what is needed to write a script/program in any language that communicates with inkscape as a Script extension. http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/MakingAnINX will be home to a description of the INX format. Ted or anybody else do you have the INX DTD that I had worked up way back when? I can't seem to find it. The last step will be to create a page describing the helper modules for extension writers who choose to use python. :-) It is just a start, but I hope we can clear things up and reduce the barriers for contribution. Comments? Aaron Spike

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Help Wanted: Autopackager
by Aaron Spike 16 Nov '06

16 Nov '06

I took over maintaining the Inkscape Autopackages both to relieve Mike Hearn, who was not an Inkscape developer, and to increase my knowledge in how applications are compiled and packaged on linux. Since then my free time has diminished and my interests have shifted. So I'm looking for an interested group or individual to assume this responsibility. Some knowledge of compiling applications on linux or a strong desire to learn recommended. :-) Anyone? Aaron Spike

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NEW: color effects extensions
by bulia byak 16 Nov '06

16 Nov '06

Contributed by Jos Hirth, with some changes by me: * Color effects: a new group of extensions in the Color submenu of the Effects menu allows you to adjust all colors of a selection at once. These commands affect both fill and stroke colors, including gradients (but not bitmaps). The commands include Brighter and Darker (adjust brightness by up or down by 10%), Desaturate, Grayscale, Negative, commands for removing or swapping the Red, Green, Blue channels, as well as a Custom command where you can set your own formulas for modifying the color channels. These extensions are a temporary solution; in a future version, similar functionality will be added to Inkscape core. Adjusting gradient colors may be buggy because a gradient is sometimes shared by more than one object. Also, undoing color changes on gradients exposes a bug where an object seems to "disappear"; this is however only a display issue (probably caused by the order in which gradients and their users are restored on undo) not causing any loss of information. Finally, on large documents and large selections with gradients, Python's XPath code may get quite slow. Despite these shortcomings, I decided to commit this, because it's genuinely useful functionality which was so far missing in Inkscape. -- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org

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SSE2 optimized compositing functions
by Jasper van de Gronde 15 Nov '06

15 Nov '06

Some time ago I wrote versions of a (small) number of compositing functions (from libnr/nr-compose.cpp) using SSE2 (with intrinsics), but I'm not sure how I should integrate them with Inkscape code (separate file? compile settings? ...?). Also, if there is anyone who has some experience with SSE2 I wouldn't mind if they took a look (I don't have very much experience with writing SSE2 and it's quite possible that I'm not achieving optimal performance). BTW, I have code for: nr_R8G8B8A8_P_R8G8B8A8_P_R8G8B8A8_N_A8 nr_R8G8B8A8_P_EMPTY_R8G8B8A8_N_A8 nr_R8G8B8A8_P_R8G8B8A8_P_R8G8B8A8_P And it could probably be adapted to variants of those functions. The SSE2 versions are approximately 2 times as fast as the normal versions (on my machine, a P4).

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new Buildtool stuff for win32
by Bob Jamison 15 Nov '06

15 Nov '06

Hi all, I've been working on a project to replace all of our old aging Makefile.mingw and the Makedep stuff for win32 builds. From the years when I worked in Java, I learned to love the Ant build tool and how it automates many tasks, and replaces a lot of shelling out for trivial tasks (copy, mkdir, delete, etc). So I made this Buildtool thing vaguely similar to Ant. It is of course infinitely less powerful than that mature project. But the basic theory of operation is the same. And if there is ever any new feature or function we need, we can easily code it into the tool. So, instead of requiring Perl, we have a single .cpp file and a build descriptor file, "build.xml," which currently is the only file it needs for a complete Inkscape build. To run the thing, merely do: g++ buildtool.cpp -o build.exe There are no dependencies. Then compile with "build" or clean up with "build clean" I see no reason that an alternative build.xml could not be made for running on Unix, also. bob

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openraster
by Alexandre Prokoudine 15 Nov '06

15 Nov '06

Hi, This is a quick reminder for Inkscape developers that OpenRaster project has been evolving [1] thanks to Cyrille Berger of Krita team and Øyvind Kolås of GEGL/GIMP teams for quite a while now. The project was mentioned in this list early in March this year. I've just checked again and it turned out that it wasn't really much discussed. Here is a short overview. OpenRaster aims to become an OpenDocument format (ODR) for multilayered raster graphics with clipping paths, masks, layer effects etc.. It is going to become a standard for exchanging of project data between users of different applications. Repesentatives of several opensource projects have expressed their interest in supporting this file format by providing either exporting or importing (or both) filters for it, when this standard is approved by respective OASIS TC as such (or even earlier). Krita/SVN and GEGL/CVS HEAD already have initial supporting code. There is a draft document from June 2006 available [2] to read. In case of Inkscape this task might be quite simple, since it can already write OpenDocument Draw documents, and exporting an Inkscape SVG document to ODR, when ODR is ready, would be a matter of exporting each layer to a respective PNG file and combining them into ODR layers, with clipping paths or masks where applicable (some effects like Gaussian blur could be exported to an effect layer, too, possibly by means of XSLT), then saving it to a ZIP archive (sure, I oversimplify this description :)). If any of Inkscape developers is interested in supporting this file format in the future (especially since it is going to have basic vector graphics capabilities) -- at least exporting to it, the team would appreciate your input. Most discussions are held in CREATE mailing list [3]. [1] http://pippin.gimp.org/OpenRaster [2] http://create.freedesktop.org/specs/OpenRaster-draft.pdf [3] http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/create Alexandre

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