As a Playful Geometer, I have been developing some python libraries for the manipulation of SVG, and I have developed some Inkscape extensions that depend on the project, and reside in the code base of it. The project resides on sourceforge here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/play-svg Some sample artwork developed using pLAySVG: http://playful-geometer.deviantart.com
Currently the libraries self-install using python distutils, but the Inkscape extensions do not. My difficulty in acomplishing the latter: - for Linux, I must sudo to run the installer, so that when the Inkscape extensions are copied to the extensions directory, they are owned by root, and thus are not available to users running Inkscape (this may be remedied by doing a chown in the setup.py script) - for Windows and MacOSX, I do not know where to copy the extensions
Could someone offer me some suggestions on how to make this work? Considering that Inkscape is leaning towards separate distribution of extensions, it is important that these issues be fleshed out. I started a wiki page as a HOWTO for package distribution of Inkscape extensions here http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/ExtensionPackageHOWTO, however, it does not deal with the owership issues I mentioned, so it is inacurate in that sense.
Originally, my intentions with pLAySVG was just to allow me to create images using code rather than point-and-click methods, but now I am interested in making pLAySVG more than a pet project, something that will be - an educational resource that will allow people (especially children) to learn about geometry, computer graphics, SVG/XML documents in a playful and creative way (similar to the way LOGO has been employed) - a toolkit for those who wish to do graphics scripting - most relevenatly, a toolkit for those who wish to develop Inkscape extensions
Considering this, I am interested in expanding the functionality of pLAySVG to encorporate some the features already resident in Inkscape, including: - path operations (i.e. union, combine) - arc estimation as in the circle tool - star tool
Could anyone offer any advice and/or assistance on this ?
As well, I'd like to figure out how I could tap into the functionality of lib2geom and make it accessible for extensions developers and stand-alone graphics scripting.
Lastly, I am interested in making my software used as an educational resource, and I welcome any input you have on achieving this goal. I have just submitted a proposal to OLPC to make this a part of XO laptop learning and have contacted Jon concerning his post on working with OPLC (although I'm probably not capable of porting).
Your feedback would be greatly appreciated,
-Justin