January 2008 - Inkscape Devel

Native File Dialogs Update
by Joel Holdsworth 07 Jan '08

07 Jan '08

I just thought I'd check in about the native file dialogs. We're getting seriously close now. After the conversation last week, I added an icon (from Tango) to the toolbar to allow the preview to be switched on and off, and I've reworked the preview pane so it now runs on Cairo not the Inkscape internal renderer. I've done quite a lot of work testing the dialog over the past few days including fixing some problems with the interfacing between GTK's UTF-8 and Windows' UTF-16. Really everything works now *except* rendering of SVG files for the preview pane. All I need is to be able to use librsvg. The current version in the bundle relies on the absent bzip2 and so is unusable - can we satisfy that dependancy? If so I can finish the patch, and the native file dialogs will be finished! - probably too late for 0.46 though now. I'm away now until saturday, but should be free all day. So if I can get a working copy of librsvg.dll, I might even be able finish the patch once and for all on saturday! - only 10 months later than originally expected. Happy Days Joel

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Re: [Inkscape-devel] Freezing/Thawing Complex Graphics (john cliff)
by Tony Vigil 06 Jan '08

06 Jan '08

> From: "john cliff" <john.cliff@...400...> > Subject: Re: [Inkscape-devel] Freezing/Thawing Complex Graphics > The export/reimport is there already do edit> make a bitmap copy. It doesnt > currently do the hide/lock of the vector tho. Please file an RFE if there > isnt one already. Ah ha! I looked in the file menu and I looked in the effects menu, but I didn't look in the edit menu. Seems like a weird place for that command. I'll try to come up with better wording for what I'm thinking of before I file an RFE. Now that I know where bitmap copy is, I'll be using it quite a bit! - Tony

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Freezing/Thawing Complex Graphics
by Tony Vigil 06 Jan '08

06 Jan '08

Using lots of blurred graphics in the same document can bring a computer to it's knees. Similarly, CPU intensive synths in a music sequencing application can do the same thing. In many music sequencers, there is a feature that allows you to freeze a music track by turning the synth's audio into a small WAV file and turning the synth off. Perhaps a similar feature could be introduced in Inkscape. By freezing an object (i.e. a group of blurred objects), it becomes a temporary PNG that is displayed in place of the real object. The real object exists in the document, but it is hidden from view. The temp freeze image can be moved around the canvas, but not edited at all. If you want to edit the object, simply unfreeze the object to delete the temp image and unhide the original object. Currently, you can hide and lock objects. What is missing is a means of exporting an object as PNG, locking and hiding the original object, importing the temporary PNG at the same size and location as the original object, then syncing the location of the original object with the temporary image. At bare minimum, a feature that would export a selected object as PNG and import the new PNG to a newly created layer (named "png copy of xyz_object") - all in one step would be a nice step in the right direction. Then, all I would need to do is hide the original object. If I want to edit the object, I can delete the PNG layer and unhide the original object.

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LPE: bend path Vs. Patter along path
by Michael Grosberg 06 Jan '08

06 Jan '08

(this is a repost due to lack of response to the previous post) Can someone explain to me what the difference between those two are? as far as I can see, both "bend path" and "pattern along path" do exactly the same thing! I'm adding a link to an SVG file that shows this: http://grosberg.michael.googlepages.com/path_effect.svg the only difference is that in one you copy-paste the control path onto a shape, and in the other you copy-paste the shape to be bent onto the path. But no matter which effect you use, if you use the same shapes you'll get the same result. The ONLY difference is in the procedure. So why do we have two ways of accomplishing the same thing? wouldn't it be simpler to just have a single effect? or am I missing some subtle difference?

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Inkscape 0.46~svn Ubuntu .deb snapshot
by Bryce Harrington 06 Jan '08

06 Jan '08

HI all, For those on Ubuntu who would like to install and test the latest development snapshot of Inkscape, I've rolled .debs for Gutsy: http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Testing/inkscape-Gutsy/ and for Hardy: http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Testing/inkscape-Hardy/ Bryce

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ReleaseNotes updates needed
by Bryce Harrington 06 Jan '08

06 Jan '08

The release notes look in pretty good shape. Please, everyone who has contributed a feature to Inkscape, doublecheck that it has an appropriate write up about it: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ReleaseNotes046 Also, there are a few TODO's in the notes that need filled in: [faster gradients - mental] [sculpt profiles - bbyak] [Open Clip Art Library import and export - rejon] [toolbars - JonCruz] [calligraphy: menus, tooltips; star; ... - joncruz] [Switched to stock GTK+ toolbars. - joncruz] [Extra magic secret sauce added. - joncruz] [filedialogs - JonCruz] Please take some time this week to get these fleshed out. We need to get the ReleaseNotes finalized SOON so the translators can translate them! Bryce

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Submitted updated font specification patch
by Gail Carmichael 05 Jan '08

05 Jan '08

For those interested: https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/169973 Please let me know if anything needs further discussion. Otherwise, you can give the word and I can submit it (or someone can go ahead and submit it if they feel like it). Gail

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Dead link to Sourceforge from inkscape.org homepage
by Tom Davidson 05 Jan '08

05 Jan '08

Not sure of the best forum for this: on the main menu at the left of www.inkscape.org, the 'Patches' button links to: http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=93438&atid=604308 Which is an error page ("permission denied"). -Tom

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funded research project for animation in Inkscape
by Bryce Harrington 04 Jan '08

04 Jan '08

Does anyone have contacts with a university, research institute, or company that would be interested in a funded project to develop animation support for Inkscape? There is a proposal going in by April '08 for funding a project like this, to start in Dec '08 and running 30 months. Please contact me off-list if you know of a university, institute, or company that would be interested in this, and I'll put you in touch. Bryce

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New bug stats graph interfance
by Bryce Harrington 03 Jan '08

03 Jan '08

Hi all, For those following the bug charts, here's a new UI for viewing them: http://people.ubuntu.com/~bryce/Plots/ I'd finally gotten tired of browsing through a raw directory listing so hacked this together. Inkscape is under the Applications tab. Bryce P.S., Tested with Firefox and Konqueror.

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