January 2008 - Inkscape Devel

grids, guides, snapping UI
by bulia byak 07 Feb '08

07 Feb '08

Hi guys, overall you did a terrific job on these features, but I have several comments/questions on the UI: Doc prefs: - "snap guides while dragging" option does not seem to work - no snapping to grid, other guides or objects - can we disable the remove button when there's nothing to remove in Grids? - can we give grid names that at least reflect their type, e.g. AxGrid2222 or RectGrid2222 instead of grid2222? - why two checkboxes, "enabled" and "visible"? what's the difference? It's not clear. I propose to rename them to "Snapping enabled" and "Grid visible". Also if I uncheck "enabled", visible does not work - why? if that's intentional, please just gray out the rest of the grid options when "enabled" is unchecked. - why there's no option for hex grid to show dots? - Snap tab: for what snaps/nodes, the tooltip lists what they may snap to, but here, more important is another question - what are nodes? only path nodes, or special points in shapes? what about gradient handles and text baselines - are they "nodes" too? I think this needs to be clarified right here. What they snap to is clear from the rest of options below. - same about what snaps/bboxes: what they snap _to_ is not important here, it's clear from the rest of options anyway, but that it only works in selector is important. Oops, no, wait; I just noticed that bboxes don't snap to paths/nodes, and nodes don't snap to bboxes. In that case this should be mentioned in the tooltips of course (e.g. "snap to bounding boxes of other objects but not to their paths" and vice versa). - "Snap at specified distance" is misleading; better something like "Snaps only when closer than:" - "Miscellaneous" is a bad label - doesn't this option belong in "what snaps"? Maybe as a suboption under "nodes" - am I right in assuming the rotation center is considered a "node" for snapping? - in any case, "Also snap the rotation center of an object when snapping nodes or guides" - why are guides mentioned here? how can I snap rotation center of a guide? - finally, I think we should rearrange the tabs again :) Tooltips that include "see previous tab" are a sign that something is very awkward here. As I understand the options, I would propose dividing them as follows: first tab: "Snapping" - enable snapping - what snaps, including the rotation center option second tab: "Snap targets" - snap to guides - snap to grids - snap to objects - snap to intersections (in this order!) What do you think? -- bulia byak Inkscape. Draw Freely. http://www.inkscape.org

4 8

Windows Inkscape icon is Crunched
by Joel Holdsworth 06 Feb '08

06 Feb '08

I just installed the Inkscape beta, and I notice a slight problem with the application icon. Notice in the attached screenshot of the start menu, that this 32x32 icon is aliased - I suspect because it's using a 48x48 icon. When was the icon changed, and why? Apart from the aliasing, I can't see any difference in design. Joel

3 2

Making more documentation faster with wiki
by unknown＠example.com 06 Feb '08

06 Feb '08

The documentation is actually 100% docbook based. Docbook are converted to SVG for integrated tutorials if I'm not wrong. The problem is docbook is not the easiest way to make a doc for everyone, and there are lot of people that are not developers and would like to help for some other tasks (as we see lot of good free tutorials around the web and translator in lot of languages). Actually the manuals are here in Inkscape SVN, there is an English and a French beginning of doc : http://inkscape.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/inkscape/user_manual/trunk/xml/ The doc didn't move since one month, Elisa-Yemanja (that already amade a paper book manual on Inkscape) contributed in French version 2 weeks ago, but think this is too long process to manage docbook. I think it will be better to use a well defined wiki for manual, as lot of contributors could participate easly as wikimedia projects and some other projects shown. There are already started wikibooks for inkscape on wikibooks.org. I believe there are 2 conditions for this project to be used: * A well defined zone for the wikimanual doc (like doc.inkscape.org, manual.inkscape.org or inkscape.org/doc), actually user have to dig in wiki to find part of user information. * Tools to convert automatically this wiki to docbook. I then searched tools to convert from wiki to docbook and from docbook to wiki, and there are several ones: to integrate docbook to wiki (and don't restart the whole documantation) there are scripts made by blender.org (or at least referenced on there wiki) in perl and python : http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Meta/DocBook_to_Wiki mediawiki project itself contain a php wiki2docbook, available in the mediawiki svn (and archive, I suppose): http://tools.wikimedia.de/~magnus/wiki2xml/w2x.php Example of conversion to odt et pdf are nice they even contain link to other pages of the manual on the de.wikipedia.org used as example: http://www.nabble.com/Wiki-Konverter-to3627646.html I suppose we could output to SVG from docbook and change to local disk pages or other site obtaining then a full doc separated distribution (as there is gimp + gimp-doc, python + python-doc, ruby + ruby-doc, ...) or choose to make links to generated svg doc on inkscape site or both, to have well done manual for users with interactive features as actual tutorials. I think tutorial is good as is light, allowing a quicktour to Inkscape, the doc should be another documentation separated from inkscape itself, at least in a first time. There are other wiki2XML in Perl (including docbook converter) here: http://search.cpan.org/search?query=wikiformat&mode=all General wiki format, Text::Wikiformat : http://search.cpan.org/~chromatic/Text-WikiFormat-0.79/lib/Text/WikiFormat.… And specialized mediawiki format Text::MediawikiFormat: http://search.cpan.org/author/DPRICE/Text-MediawikiFormat-0.05/lib/Text/Med… CGI::Kwiki and Pod::Simple::Wiki are other Perl parser. There is to dig here for Python parsers/converters: http://pypi.python.org/pypi?%3Aaction=search&term=wiki+docbook&submit=search A Ruby converter from wiki to docbook (and other) : http://rubyforge.org/projects/deplategem/ Ruby wiki parsers : http://rubyforge.org/search/?type_of_search=soft&words=wiki+docbook&Search=… Regards, Popolon

6 6

Re: [Inkscape-devel] pdf-input.cpp:544: error: '_preview_output_dev' was not declared in this scope
by Joshua Facemyer / Impressus Art 03 Feb '08

03 Feb '08

Jon A. Cruz wrote: > > On Oct 20, 2007, at 6:49 PM, Joshua Facemyer / Impressus Art wrote: > >> Okay, will the same pdf functionality be present then? (Also, is >> this a workaround to get the thing compiling at a loss of >> functionality, or is it something that should / will be addressed in >> a future update to make it compile in an environment that it should >> without difficulty?) >> > > Someone familiar with the specifics would have to look into it, but I > think it's a work-around in losing a bit of functionality... > > But from what I recall, it's probably due to us using internals of > poppler that are not part of the public API. Get and build poppler > yourself and you might have the needed .h, but use standard packing > and you probably won't. > > Part of me only seeing this recently was that only recently had I > gotten a new enough poppler in macports. I use Gentoo, so my poppler should be "my own" build. Same with Jeff. (Had you figured this out yet, Jeff?) Is it maybe that some switch needs to be passed to poppler when building it? JF

6 18

Inkscape native Mac OS X build & look improvements
by Adam Strzelecki 03 Feb '08

03 Feb '08

Hello, I've recently switched for good to MacOSX (after several years of work with Windows). I'm user and fan Inkscape. On Windows there was pretty well working native build, while it is missing on MacOSX (X11 build is pretty slow and not handy) So I've decided to make it myself and now share my experience with you. Attached the screenshot of my running native OSX (Leopard) version of Inkscape (no, it's not a fake ! ;P) I've used the recipe from http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/CompilingMacOsX with MacPorts. Here are my changes to original MacPorts recipe: 1) I've updated to latest GTK+2 using: (you need to do the same or Inkscape will be crashing every few seconds) port edit gtk2 version 2.12.5 checksums md5 588c7fb3d9ebadf4f5a1ab4c534e4db5 port install gtk2 +quartz 2) I've downgraded boehmgc to 6.8 (latest 7.0 causes Inkscape to hang (never ending loop) on startup) port edit boehmgc version 6.8 distname ${d_name}${version} checksums sha1 6d5def5ba5d29292ba9c76f04df3ec06d3ab3278 3) Applied my own-cooked patch Inkscape_OSX_native_menu_and_toolbars.patch (attached) * src/widgets/toolbox.cpp: removes tb_s, tb_e spacers from the toolbars to they DON'T have ugly underlines (who did invent this anyway, this produces ugly look in most GTK themes where toolbars are 2x inset in the GUI, I believe this should be removed anyway in all builds (platforms)) * src/ige-mac-menu.[c/h]: sources for native Carbon Mac top menu wrapper instead of having the menu inside the window (taken from GIMP sources) * src/interface.cpp: use ige_mac_menu_set_menu_bar on native GTK (Quartz) for menu and return NULL so no menu is displayed in the Window itself * configure.ac: add Carbon checking and libs define required ige-mac- menu * src/Makefile_insert: add Carbon libs and ige-mac-menu sources * removes packaging/macosx/Resources/themes/Clearlooks-Quicksilver- OSX: we should take Leopardish-normal theme instead from: http://www.gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Leopardish?content=65299 which is far more adequate for GTK looking like OSX 4) then normally built with packaging/macosx/osx-build.sh a c b i p 5) fixed Inkscape.app so it is displayed as single Launch bar icon named "Inkscape" by: * removing Contents/Resources/getdisplay.sh & Contents/Resources/ inkscape (we don't need those in native !) * renaming Contents/Resources/inkscape-bin to Contents/Resources/ Inkscape * replacing Contents/MacOS/Inkscape with simple shell script that sets cwd to Inkscape.app and runs Contents/Resources/bin/Inkscape: > #!/bin/sh > PRG="$0" > while [ -h "$PRG" ] ; do > ls=`ls -ld "$PRG"` > link=`expr "$ls" : '.*-> $.*$$'` > if expr "$link" : '/.*' > /dev/null; then > PRG="$link" > else > PRG=`dirname "$PRG"`"/$link" > fi > done > DIR="`dirname $PRG`" > cd $DIR > cd ../.. > exec Contents/Resources/bin/Inkscape 6) Changed GTK theme (with gtk-chtheme) to Leopardish and font "Geneva 11pt" - MacOSX default And the result is Inkscape looking & working like native OSX (Leopard) application: * native look with GTK Leopardish-normal theme * native menus with ige-mac-menu-bar * native Name and application in Launch bar Yet I found some problems while doing those changes: * ige-mac-menu doesn't map properly keyboard shortcuts as it should (as it does with GIMP), those should be mapped with Ctrl<->Cmd transition, while they're not mapped at all with Inkscape * ige-mac-menu trick with returning NULL to avoid display the 2nd menu in the window makes probably some problem with updating the menu in the app in later stages so things like recent files don't show up in the app menu anymore * ige-mac-menu should be extended with Inkscape (bold) menu entries for preferences and application closure (I hope Mac users will know what I mean) * my tricks with Inkscape.app are as dirty as old tricks for X11 version, I believe that proper solution should anyway place final native binary of Inkscape in Contents/Resources/MacOS and map properly path in Contents/Resources for lib, etc, share,.. and so on without intermediate shell scripts (like mine) * toolbox should be set to small icons by default (SVN is set to big icons), unless the Inkscape window will forced to set its minimum height of toolbox height, which results in Inkscape not being resizable vertically on my MacBook at all ! (being too big) * Leopardish-normal theme and "Geneva 11pt" should be set by default in Inkscape.app somehow if no GTK settings (or other GTK installation) are present * ... and finally there's some problem with SVG View repaint, everytime it repaints (when opening or activating Inkscape window) the view is afterward erased by default (grayish) color (???) and then when I move the mouse over the view (which is erased with solid color), the repaints 2nd time, this time the proper output stays on screen. I believe it is problem of Inkscape not GTK+ cos it doesn't happen in any other place but just SVG (Document) view. Anyway my build works pretty well, there're some minor annoyances in some windows (like File open window) however it seems to be pretty stable (doesn't crash) and responsible. I hope it will help you (Developers) to make some time native OSX official builds... maybe 0.46 !? Best regards, -- Adam Strzelecki |: nanoant.com :|

5 11

Re: [Inkscape-devel] Pencil toolbar
by R M 02 Feb '08

02 Feb '08

> Also: maybe while you're at it, you could also add the tolerance > slider to the controls bar of the tool, which is a very long-standing > feature gap. here's a patch to add the tolerance control to the slider: http://arcsin.org/temp/toolbox.diff one major problem is that it doesn't listen for preference changes and will get out of sync with the tolerance control in the inkscape-preferences panel. I didn't see any obvious way to remedy this. Is there one, or does one need to be written (setup a signal to connect to, to be notified)? rob

4 4

LPE plugin framework
by unknown＠example.com 01 Feb '08

01 Feb '08

Hi all, I'd like to start working on building a *plugin* framework for the LPEs (for example, but maybe tools too? dunno, let's try with LPE 1st). My motivation is two-fold: 1. I'd like people to be able to create new LPEs without requiring a new Inkscape release, like the current python extensions 2. it seems a challenging task! :) I'd like to hear opinions, tips, critique, everything about this from you. Dr Dobb's has very recently published articles about building such a framework which I am intending to follow (haven't read any of it, except the title). Again what do you think of this? Regards, Johan

10 16

Fwd: Stupid question - object's dimensions
by Rob Antonishen 01 Feb '08

01 Feb '08

Is this using a python extension to inkscape, or in an external application? If an extension, you can call another instance of inkscape passing the --query-all parameter and get a list of all the bounding boxes for every object in the svg file. -Rob A> On Jan 31, 2008 12:37 AM, M. Bashir Al-Noimi wrote: > > Hi All :-) , > > I want to calculate dimensions of the following object: > > <svg version="1.0" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="430pt" > height="648pt" viewBox="0 0 430 648" preserveAspectRatio="xMidYMid meet"> > <g transform="translate(0,648) scale(0.040000,-0.040000)" fill="#000000" > stroke="none"> > <path d="M6837 16034 c-4 -4 -4 -11 -1 -16 6 -10 24 -1 24 13 0 10 -14 12 -23 > 3z"/> > > How I can do that? > > I tried the following, but I'm sure it's wrong. > > > > Calc Left point: Left = XM*Scale_X = 6837*0.040000 = 273.48 > > > Calc Bottom point: Bottom = YM*Scale_Y = 16034*ABS(-0.040000) = 641.36 > > > Converting c point to C: > -4 -4 -4 -11 -1 -16 6 -10 24 -1 24 13 0 10 -14 12 -23 3 > 273.32 641.2 273.32 640.92 273.44 640.72 273.72 640.96 274.44 641.32 274.44 > 641.88 273.48 641.76 272.92 641.84 272.56 641.48 > > > Calc Width as following: Width = X_MAX-X_MIN = 274.44-272.56 = 1.88 > > > Calc Height as following: Height = Y_MAX-Y_MIN = 641.88-640.72 = 1.16 > > > -- > Best Regards تحياتي > Muhammad Bashir Al-Noimi محمد بشير النعيمي > > My Blog مدونتي > http://mbnoimi.net/ > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by: Microsoft > Defy all challenges. Microsoft(R) Visual Studio 2008. > http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/vse0120000070mrt/direct/01/ > _______________________________________________ > Inkscape-devel mailing list > Inkscape-devel(a)lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel > >

3 3

can't install inkscape .46 on ubuntu
by Benjamin Huot 31 Jan '08

31 Jan '08

Inkscape preview .46.0 will not install on Xubuntu Linux 7.10 with Synaptic after I added the lines described on the front page of the Ubuntu website. the exact error was as follows ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------- inkscape: Depends: libpango1.0-0 (>=1.18.3) but 1.18.2-0ubuntu1 is to be installed

1 0

Accessing Resource Data in Python Scripts
by Joel Holdsworth 31 Jan '08

31 Jan '08

Hi All, I'm just working on a rendering extension, which needs to access a collection of source data files. Really I'd like to add a sub-directory to the extension scripts directory, but I'm having difficulty accessing the sub-directory, because when my script starts, it's working directory seems to be my home directory not the extension directory. So if I call the line inkex.etree.parse( "my-sub-dir/data.svg" ) it only returns successfully if my-sub-dir is in my home directory. Does anyone have any suggestions how to access my data files from their installation directory? Thanks Joel

3 3