On Sat, 2005-07-09 at 15:04 +0400, Alexandre Prokoudine wrote:
On 7/9/05, Matt Squires <matthew.squires@...854...> wrote:
Here is where I am on the dxf importing so far. A few weeks ago I
checked
the dxf libraries that are already out there (dime, Qcad (dxflib),
blender
were specifically mentioned in the proposal) and found all are GPL'd.
After a discussion with Jon about licensing I became more aware of the
possibility of releasing under several licenses. So I decided to
write
a
dxf importing code using STL containers to hold the various levels of
data. I hope that it will be something others can reuse.
So you will write yor own library from scratch?
Ok, this worries me a bit. STL is nice as an implementation tool, but
why would using it be a feature? Are STL containers to be a visible part of the proposed library's external interface?
Often that's not a good use of STL... especially as it tends to force
users of the library away from the prefered STL iterator model and can get very ugly with inlining. It's generally better to provide your own types implementing an STL container/iterator interface on top of a straightfoward base API.
Similarly, when you're using STL containers as part of your internal
representation, it's best to keep them encapsulated within objects that provide more domain-specific interfaces. Otherwise when you e.g. decide that your std::list really needs to be a std::vector with a parallel index beside it, you end up having to rewrite all of that object's clients. Typedefs help, but no two containers are 100% interchangable.
Also, using a GPL-licensed library isn't a problem for us. I thought
the main goal of the SoC proposal was to add DXF support to Inkscape, not to create a DXF library?
-mental
I agree my SoC is not solely about writing a dxf lib. but (for better and hopefully not worse) I have finished writing the basics of a dxf library and tested it with various files.
On the issue of the STL...I have heard from a few professional programmer friends that the STL is a great tool, but can be abused. As it is now all STL containers are in the private area of the dxf objects, are mostly for storage, and not for directly accessing the extracted dxf info.
My feeling is that different revision issues will come out in testing. Most of the dxf importing I have done in the past with other commercial software has worked no matter the dxf version. I don't do anything crazy in my CAD so I may not notice it. From where I stand Inkscape isn't made to do everthing dxf does. 3D is an easy example of non overlap. So not everything in dxf will be supported in Inkscape, but I hope as much as possible will be.
On another note... what would people rather see; code that is directly tied to Inkscape as a library or a dxf2svg type interpreter? I hope to do both, but what do people want to see?
Thanks for the advice and keeping me on my toes,
Matt