Roadmap for Inkscape 0.93 on Windows - GTK3, devlibs, MSYS2 and support for Windows XP
by Eduard Braun
Hi all,
one of the biggest changes in current trunk is the switch to gtk3.
As some of you already know this step will be a hard one on Windows as
we have to rely on pre-built development libraries to be able to compile
Inkscape:
* devlibs currently has no support for gtk3 at all.
(There's an experimental branch on which jazzynico was working, but
as far as I know he was never able to complete it due to build issues)
* devlibs64 includes gtk3 3.19.6 but IMHO it's pretty broken and would
require *a lot* of work to get anywhere near being usable
As a result we're currently not able to build Inkscape for 32-bit
Windows at all (bug 1609954 [1]) and builds with devlibs64 are nowhere
close to be usable.
*Therefore I want to propose to switch to MSYS2 for compiling Inkscape
trunk on Windows!*
MSYS2 is a rewrite of MSYS including all the necessary build tools to
compile native applications for Windows using mingw-w64 (see official
homepage [2] for details). Furthermore it includes the package manager
"pacman" (users of Arch Linux will know it) which allows to conveniently
install and upgrade packages.
The switch would have a *lot* of advantages:
* Easier setup of the build system as gcc and all necessary build
tools and libraries are included in MSYS2 (currently we require to
download gcc + devlibs + cmake separately and procedure varies
widely between 32-bit and 64-bit builds)
* A solid set of constantly updated libraries (see [3]).
* Packages are usually built with a small set of patches to fix
compatibility errors on Windows that would otherwise require hours
to figure out when building libraries from scratch.
* An active developer community. Questions are answered swiftly, bugs
in the provided libraries can usually be figured out jointly.
* Creating new packages (if it should ever be required) or recompiling
existing packages (i.e. to test a fix) is extremely easy. (I
recently added libvisio [4] which was the only dependency of
Inkscape not yet provided)
* 32-bit and 64-bit builds are equivalent. The exact same library
versions are used and MSYS2 includes build environments for both
that co-exist by default
I'm already successfully building current trunk with MSYS2 without any
issues at all (there are no code changes needed, only environment
variables have to be adjusted and the CMake install target has to be
adjusted to pick up the correct libraries). If you're interested you can
find the latest builds at [5] (the most obvious change is the Adwaita
theme that is now used by gtk3 by default but doesn't look very native.
However that's something we can customize going forward as desired).
There's one big downside:
My builds currently don't work on Windows XP. However I'm afraid this
has nothing to do with MSYS2. Many libraries have started to drop
support for Windows XP, most importantly gtk3 does not support it after
3.16 [6]. This means we have two possibilites:
* Drop support for Windows XP in Inkscape 0.93
* Try our best to somehow (currently I have no idea how!) continue
support for Windows XP. This would most likely require us to keep
building, maintaining and distributing our own development libraries
(however I guess even here MSYS2 would be a huge help). While
achieving this might sound favourable keep in mind that it would
require us to limit ourselves to old library versions on purpose
with all the inevitable downsides like unfixed bugs and growing
number of incompatibilities in newer OSs.
I thought about this for some time now and although it was not an easy
decision I'd vote for the first option. I know people still use Windows
XP in productive environments (I have an old Windows XP server running
myself - shame on me) but to be realistic it's time to move on. Support
for XP ended a long time ago, it's insecure and there's only very few
cases where people are actually bound to XP for other reasons than
convenience. Weighing all the pros and cons I'd say the pros clearly
prevail!
*So: Let me know what you think!*
Does a switch to MSYS2 as build system sound reasonable to you?
Is Windows XP support something we have to keep even if it means a huge
amount of additional effort and requires us to limit ourselves on newer
platforms on purpose?
Looking forward to you thoughts,
Eduard
[1] https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1609954
[2] http://www.msys2.org/
[3] https://github.com/Alexpux/MINGW-packages
[4] https://github.com/Alexpux/MINGW-packages/pull/2194
[5] http://download.tuxfamily.org/inkscape/win64/
[6]
https://github.com/GNOME/gtk/blob/24483481c1eaa6e3bad9f158e2d4d3ef21505d9...
6 years, 6 months
Re: [Inkscape-devel] Nondestructive booleans
by Jabier Arraiza
Thanks Michael. ping me if you need help with LPE.
Cheers, Jabier.
On Mon, 2017-02-27 at 15:01 +0100, Michael Soegtrop wrote:
> Dear Miguel, Jabier,
>
> I started to finalize the embroidery stitching LPE (experimenting
> with
> TSP algorithms) - probably it is smarter to first update the boolean
> LPE
> branch and add the small changes Jabier requested. I will do so now,
> should take less than 2 weeks.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Michael
>
>
> On 27.02.2017 09:58, Jabier Arraiza wrote:
> > Hi Miguel.
> > There is plans to be included in 0.93 by a Boolops LPE from Michael
> > Soegtrop.
> >
> > https://code.launchpad.net/~msoegtrop/inkscape/lpe-bool
> >
> > Hi, Jabier.
6 years, 6 months
Is it possible to specify the filetype or filename when using the verb FileSaveAs from a DOS prompt?
by alvinpenner
This is two questions, actually, somewhat loosely related:
1. I would like to run a DOS command such as:
inkscape --verb=dosomething --verb=FileSaveAs \windows\temp\testtext.svg
Currently this command will present me with a SaveAs dialog with the current
file name and the filetype svg. I would like to specify, in the command
line, either the file type for the Save As operation, or perhaps the
filename with the filetype as well, so that the operation could perform
silently. Not sure what the syntax would be for this.
2. Alternately, if this is not possible, is it possible to execute verbs
from inside a Python script? So, for example, if I were in the Python
extension dxf_outlines.py for saving a dxf file, can I execute the verb
"--verb=ObjectToPath" and get output from it?
tia,
Alvin
--
View this message in context: http://inkscape.13.x6.nabble.com/Is-it-possible-to-specify-the-filetype-o...
Sent from the Inkscape - Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
6 years, 6 months
GSOC
by Jabier Arraiza
This year I do not go to propose me as a mentor, but if anyone is
interested in my proposal from last year I could co-mentor in the dark
-if posibol-.
Cheers, Jabier.
6 years, 7 months
Re: [Inkscape-devel] Roadmap for Inkscape 0.93 on Windows - GTK3, devlibs, MSYS2 and support for Windows XP
by C R
May I suggest migrating to Ubuntu? You may actually have some luck running
those older programs in WINE. Just a thought. :)
Dosbox still runs my very first Pascal programs!
You may also find good open source replacements for your old software too,
and probably for free!
Sorry to hear about your troubles with Windows 10. If you must have
Windows, maybe win 7 would be better at this point.
You could also try running XP in a VM in Ubuntu, then you could have your
cake and eat it too. :)
-C
On 27 Feb 2017 11:20 a.m., "alvinpenner" <penner@...1856...> wrote:
>> If they are still on XP, they can still use older builds of Inkscape.
People stuck on XP must surely be used to new software not working on their
old deprecated OS by now.
Actually in my experience the situation is the exact opposite. Windows 10
has not offered me access to any new software that is of any interest to me.
Instead it has forced me to abandon two old, legacy, pieces of software that
I had used daily for about 15 years on XP, and now can no longer use because
they are 16 bit software. So the switch to Windows 10 has been a significant
step backwards in terms of functionality and in terms of user-friendliness.
Windows 10 is incredibly unfriendly when it comes to simple things like
copying files, and it is full of bugs and glitches. I upgraded to Windows 10
because I was literally forced to do so, not because I wanted to, and
certainly not because it offered me anything that I was actually interested
in.
Alvin
--
View this message in context: http://inkscape.13.x6.nabble.
com/Roadmap-for-Inkscape-0-93-on-Windows-GTK3-devlibs-MSYS2-
and-support-for-Windows-XP-tp4979046p4979062.html
Sent from the Inkscape - Dev mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
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6 years, 7 months
Nondestructive booleans
by Miguel Lopez
I'm not a expert in earlier Inkscape version as I have no experience in
those, but I have heard about earlier Inkscape supporting nondestructive
booleans. Did it? Is there anybody looking to restore this? I would find
it interesting because that opens up to a lot more possibilities in SVG
editing. What about earlier features that some Inkscape users use, but
they aren't found in Inkscape .92.
6 years, 7 months
Re: [Inkscape-devel] [Inkscape-user] Development Project Management System Gsoc 2017
by Maren Hachmann
Hi Rohit,
welcome :)
I'm not sure if maybe you've already received a reply via other
channels, but just in case you haven't, I'm forwarding your message to
the developers' mailing list, and will try to give some small kind of reply.
A good (and only recently updated) source for getting started with
Inkscape's website development is
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/WebSite
The bug reports for the website currently live on launchpad [1] and on
gitlab in parallel. If you haven't yet, and Bryce or Martin haven't
already given you another 'starter task' or have one in mind, you could
browse around and look if one of them catches your interest.
@Bryce or Martin, I think you've both volunteered to be a GSOC mentor,
maybe you already have some task in mind for GSOC students
pre-application phase?
Regards,
Maren
[1]: https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape-web
[2]: https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape-web/issues
Am 23.02.2017 um 16:46 schrieb Rohit Lodha:
> Hello,
> I am Rohit, a sophomore pursuing B.E Computer Science . I have been
> developing websites and managing them for the last one year for my
> college and a start-up that I had worked with. I have a huge interest in
> Python and Django and have build almost all the websites using them.
>
> I want to contribute to Inkscape by working on the Development Project
> Management System during the summer. I have gone through the Janitorial
> task documentation and also have started searching for patches to fix. I
> also had a look at the Django Website Development, the inkscape-web
> repository.
>
> Can you please tell me how to proceed or any task you expect me to carry
> out to be a part of the community ?
>
> -Rohit
> My github profile: https://github.com/rtgdk
>
>
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>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
6 years, 7 months
What are your development plans for 0.93?
by Bryce Harrington
I've marked off the 0.92 items that were done from the Roadmap. A few
things weren't finished and I've bumped them forward to 0.93. Some
stuff I'm not certain of; if anyone else knows please update
accordingly.
The 0.93 list of objectives looks more ambitious than I suspect the
project can achieve within the coming year, and should be realigned to
better forecast what's likely to be done.
A few items from the 0.93 roadmap are already under way:
* Gtk3 & drop Gtk2
* Git & drop bzr
* CMake & drop autotools/btools/etc.
* C++11 compiler hard requirement
I think we could safely add:
* OS X native packaging
What else could be considered to be added?
These I'm not so sure about, and might be candidates to postpone, if no
one is looking at working on them presently:
* Flip y-cooridinate to match SVG
* Dependency reorg
* Unit test framework and major test case expansion
* Windows uninstaller
* New Swatch dialog
Thoughts on the above? Or any other Roadmap modifications that should
be discussed?
Bryce
6 years, 7 months
