October 2012 - Inkscape Devel

Unified line style interface (was: Powerstroke wrap-up)
by Valerie 07 Oct '12

07 Oct '12

> or the UI ideas we definitely need for release. Well, at some point I was trying to think up a unified interface for accessing line styles, but it would require a rather big interface change, so I'm not sure anybody would be in favour. (in any case, there is 0 chance of this being implemented anytime soon) Have the rest of you ever used Krita? Krita has two small boxes at the top that when clicked, each opens a window: - One to choose brush engines + edit options + test and create previews - One to access presets It sounds complicated, but it's actually quite easy to use: the presets system works very well, and the brush editing drop-down allows you to access complicated options quickly (then save them as easy-to-access presets). Although the editing window itself is large, it actually doesn't get in the way too much compared to say, Inkscape's fill and stroke tab, because you get it out of the way as soon as you've chosen. The way I see it, while brushes are at the heart of raster drawing programs, line-styles are (more or less) at the heart of illustration programs. I'd envision an interface more or less like Krita's, but with line styles: - A linestyle editing pane, with a list of different engines to the left and options to the right, and a test-pad at the bottom where you can also create previews for new presets - A presets drop-down - (maybe something with fills too, not sure though) The different engines would include: - Plain: normal, boring lines. It's is own "engine" because it's the most commonly used "style." - Dotted lines: here you'll have the dotted lines, markers etc. - Powerstrokes: everything that used to be in the Live Paths Effects pane will be moved here. There could be a visual editor to design and save line styles, basically a horizontal powerstroke to which you add and edit controls. Once you've saved it as a preset, the shape will then be mapped onto any powerstroke you draw. You could also choose "use current clipboard" to map the style of a currently copied powerstroke onto the editor, for saving. - Pattern along Path: Options include 1. Repeat styles 2. Whether to use the original colors of the object or use the fill color and 3. Whether to choose a pattern from a gallery, or use the clipboard. You can easily add new clips to said gallery (so you can make custom vines, chains, etc.), just like with Krita's pixel-brush brush-tip gallery. - Calligraphy maybe? - Line tiling? This is if Inkscape ever adds complex tiling along a line (see blueprint for tiling tool). - Render: specific live path effects, like stroke, etc. The presets drop-down will show all available presets, regardless of engine. It will have a search box for easy filtering. There'd be intuitive names like: - Graph full line single-arrow - Graph dotted line double-arrow - Powerstroke decreasing - Powerstroke increasing - Powerstroke sharp edges etc. (want a graph connector? Type "Gr" and you'll already get the list of graph lines) The tools in the left pane would be separated into line drawing tools (that apply the selected engine) and other tools. You can choose whether you want shape tools to use "plain lines" by default or use the chosen line style engine. To make the whole system even easier to use, the different engines would require more on-canvas editing options. For example, the purple diamond used for powerstrokes right now could be extended to Pattern Along Path to create variations in the sizes of the patterns. If on- canvas editing is too complicated, the editor pane at least could be used to specify and preview the size of the patterns used. If anybody is interested I can try to make a few mock-ups, even if they don't get used.

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SourceForge Upgrade
by Josh Andler 07 Oct '12

07 Oct '12

Hey All, SF.net is upgrading their site and all projects. I wanted to give a heads up that I've initiated the transition for us and we are in their queue. Hopefully this will not negatively impact our usage of SF, but, it is something they're going to do to all projects that they host. I apologize in advance that they will be notifying everyone with commit access of code access changes, and I'm sorry if they send other emails to everyone else. Hopefully this will all be for the good in the end, as it's going to be mandatory. Cheers, Josh

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Bug Patch 773288
by Arshdeep Singh 06 Oct '12

06 Oct '12

Regarding Bug: https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/773288 and comment: https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/773288/comments/6 I don't understand the problem. According to the comment, if a an existing file was saved with the 'Show Border' option unchecked in Document Properties, this saved preference is not reflected when the document is reopened after being saved/closed ? If yes, that is the problem, the saved preference seems to be reflected before/after saving and opening. Also, the global settings for a new drawing is also not disturbed i.e. if I unchecked the 'Show Border' option in a drawing , then saved it, then opened a new drawing, the 'Show Border' is checked. Note:Everywhere above, 'Show Border' being checked implies correct behavior in the document. This behavior has been verified. -- demicoder

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Frosting up
by Josh Andler 06 Oct '12

06 Oct '12

Hey all, Alright... according to the proposed release plan, we are arriving at Frost today. Frost will have us achieve: Most development complete. Release Notes should be >90% filled in. Need to post inkscape-0.49-alpha.tar.gz Here is a total list of things that are milestoned for 0.49 which are still open: https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bugs?field.searchtext=&orderby=-import… Note: Not all of those are necessary, and in fact, some will have the milestone dropped (e.g. "Inverted ruler co-ordinate system"). Any help at determining the unachievable or otherwise unlikely to be tackled reports is always appreciated. Does anyone have any outstanding feature work that they'd like to see included? I know David Mathog has done a lot of EMF related work which needs further testing. Is there anything else that is in a relatively mature state that we might want to look at? I will give a followup email early next week after I've had a chance to create a list of blockers and issues which must be addressed. If you have any issues, comments, or something to address... please speak up! Cheers, Josh

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How does ptr_shared work / share_string memory leak
by Kris De Gussem 06 Oct '12

06 Oct '12

Dear all After recent bug reports ([1] and [2]) I had a look on the memory leak associated with the usage of share_string. share_string occupies some memory, but it apparently can afterwards never be released. Individual leaks are small, but there are many and the total memory leaked my quickly sum up. I have been studying the code, but I'm not able to figure out how ptr_shared works. So I was wondering if someone could explain how ptr_shared works and if this explanation could be added to the source code in doxygen comments (and even the wiki?). Related to this question, why do we need a shared pointer system at all? To solve the memory leak issue, I was thinking of replacing all calls to share_string with the usage of Glib::ustring (either directly or via ptr_shared). Is this a good idea or are there better options. Thanks for the suggestions. Regards K. Links: [1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1043571 [2] https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/1061967

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Sample file request: R->L and T->B languages, in a couple of file formats
by mathog 05 Oct '12

05 Oct '12

It would be a big help to me in getting the EMF sections of the code right if some developers who uses an R->L language and a T->B language could prepare a set of samples similar to the files listed below. Then email them to me. But before actually starting work on this please post back to the list first saying you will be doing this, so only one person needs do this for each language. Samples are only required for one R->L and one T->B language. These samples don't need to be a 1:1 translation from English - I probably won't be able to make any sense of what they say anyway, but it is important that the starting document edited normally in PowerPoint in whichever language you use, since that will likely affect what the emf file will look like internally. Examples of what I need in English are in these files: http://saf.bio.caltech.edu/pub/software/inkscape/formatted_text_en_test.ppt http://saf.bio.caltech.edu/pub/software/inkscape/formatted_text_en_test.emf http://saf.bio.caltech.edu/pub/software/inkscape/formatted_text_en_test.png http://saf.bio.caltech.edu/pub/software/inkscape/formatted_text_en_test.svg I used Arial font which I think has support for most common languages, at least on Linux. Left,center,right justification will look more or less the same (at a distance) in a R->L language. That is, the same parts of the screen are written, just different characters. For a T->B language I believe Left justify slides to the top. The near collision of the text blocks at +45 and -45 degrees is intentional, please do that in the other languages too. The samples from other languages do not need to have the text in exactly the same positions as the English samples. The English language sample files were made as follows. 1. Compose the file in Powerpoint in a standard slide. Be sure to put a slide sized rectangle on the bottom or step (2), below , will not scale correctly: http://saf.bio.caltech.edu/PPT_G_P_I/#P2I_method Save the presentation as a *.ppt file. 2. In PowerPoint, in that slide window select all right click one selected object save as picture. (give it a name and use "Enhanced Windows Metafile" to create the *.emf file). 3. Take a screen shot of the PPT slide, or of the EMF in Windows Preview, and save as PNG to make the *png file. 4. The SVG in the example was constructed by hand so that text would be at least somewhat editable. EMF import was not used because the text ends up in many little pieces, ie: http://saf.bio.caltech.edu/PPT_G_P_I/#I2P_formatted_strings To make the SVG in Inkscape I suggest: format a 10 x 7.5" page, then import the *.png into it, align it to the page, and lock it. If the underlying rectangle was used in step (1) then the PNG will be exactly the right size. Then create a second layer above the first, enter text to match the underlying PNG. Easiest if the underlying text is black, and the upper layer is red. I used vertical kerning for super and subscripts, because it was not otherwise possible to match those character positions. When the overlay is done, remove the lower layer, change the text to black, save to make the *svg file. Thank you, David Mathog mathog@...1176... Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech

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Spiro while drawing whith pen
by Jabiertxo Arraiza Cenoz 04 Oct '12

04 Oct '12

Hello. In the branch https://code.launchpad.net/~jabiertxof/inkscape/B-Spline whe develop spiro pen while drawing, as first part of the b-spline editing. You can check it and comment. Now i have a problem, i want to convert a node CUSP to SYMM or SMOOTH. I have the SPCurve -now drawing- and is in a function whith SPPenContext but the GEOM::POINT to change is not the last of the SPCurve (Is the penultimate). Any body can help me? Sorry for my bad english

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Building .app on Mac OS X with Macports
by Frank Schima 04 Oct '12

04 Oct '12

I'm trying to build inkscape 0.48.2 as a Mac .app application using Macports. I'm on Mac OS X 10.7.3 with Xcode 4.2.1 and Macports python 2.7.2 with numpy and lxml. According to the wiki page [1], I should use the osx-app.sh shell script to create it. So I attempted to run the script as stated in the wiki but it did not work for me, saying that it wants the python modules directory to be specified. $ pwd /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_mports_trunk_dports_graphics_inkscape/inkscape/work/inkscape-0.48.2/packaging/macosx $ ./osx-app.sh -s -b /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_mports_trunk_dports_graphics_inkscape/inkscape/work/destroot/opt/local/bin/inkscape -p ../../Info.plist CREATE INKSCAPE APP BUNDLE Python modules directory not specified. Python modules can be downloaded from: http://inkscape.modevia.com/macosx-snap/Python-packages.dmg So I next attempted to specify the python directory. $ ./osx-app.sh -s -b /opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_mports_trunk_dports_graphics_inkscape/inkscape/work/destroot/opt/local/bin/inkscape -p ../../Info.plist -py /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages CREATE INKSCAPE APP BUNDLE Directory does not appear to contain the i386 and ppc python modules: /opt/local/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/lib/python2.7/site-packages Python modules can be downloaded from: http://inkscape.modevia.com/macosx-snap/Python-packages.dmg I tried the download link but that does not resolve. Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong, and more importantly how I can build inkscape as a Mac .app with Macports? Cheers! Frank [1] <http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/CompilingMacOsX>

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Swatch/Palette border
by John Smith 04 Oct '12

04 Oct '12

Recently committed some options for the Swatch/Palette border (Swatch/Palette popup menu Border->None/Solid/Wide). I think there is a good case made (both user acceptance and better distinction) for setting the default border to solid black in the below bug report. Any interest in changing the default border ? https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/171177

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extension help requested
by Mark Schafer 04 Oct '12

04 Oct '12

I'm modifying the nicecharts extension to make more charts and 'improve' some aspects. It now reads many lines and columns in a csv file to make several graphs at the same time. Its going very well except for this one problem: - when I feed it too much data inkscape locks up and does not respond. The amount of data is suspiciously low. Can anyone help me to debug it. What am I doing wrong ? - I have fixed a problem where lots of unused filters were being made. - I'm pretty sure I've got my layers and groups being made correctly. - The log shows the file runs to completion without errors but control never returns to the users. - To show the problem, 2 data files are available. one is good one is not. Code logs to file for examination. You will need to modify the logfile location at top of nicecharts.py for your system. Code is here: http://pastebin.com/6b8jcanU inx is here: http://pastebin.com/u3znJNrR you also need support code: http://pastebin.com/YKCdWJYS datafiles: good - http://pastebin.com/7xL4cf8b failure - http://pastebin.com/sqTXb8bd rename the files: nicechart.py nicechart.inx nicechart_colors.py

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