On Wed, Jan 17, 2007 at 11:17:10AM +0100, J.B.C.Engelen@...1578... wrote:
Ronan Zeegers wrote:
Yes, I really want to push inkscape to the "multiimage" animation level. But I don't know if it is easy to do. Do you have a guess of how many days work it represent?
It depends on how much thought has already gone into this. E.g an important question is what this page stuff looks like in SVG syntax. To me adding pages does not seem too hard to do, but I could be miles off aswell.
Work like this on new Inkscape feature can almost always be split up into three stages:
1. Find the appropriate tags and attributes in the SVG spec 2. Implement support for rendering files with these tags 3. Implement support for UI controls to edit the tags
#1 is mostly a research project. Start by reading the SVG spec so you can learn about the tag, the attributes that go with it, and so forth. It is good practice to set up a page in the Wiki for storing your notes as you do this process, so that in case you don't make it to steps 2 and 3, then maybe someone else can benefit from your research.
#2 is the fun part. It helps to be comfortable with Inkscape internals for this part. Depending on the feature, it may require advanced knowledge of transformation, rendering, document management, and so on. For this part, just hand-edit an SVG file to put the tags in that you found in step #1, and keep plugging away at the code until Inkscape displays things as the specification dictates. It can help to compare your work with Batik, as we use that program as our reference implementation.
#3 is the most important stage, since it is the point at which the feature becomes available for users. This step often requires knowledge of Gtk+, for creating dialogs, widgets, menus, etc. for allowing the user to edit the characteristics of the feature. Be sure to listen to feedback from other developers and users - especially if there are different opinions. It is hard to come up with UI that everyone can agree on, but it is worth the work to achieve this - the more critique your UI survives, the better loved the feature will be for future users.
Looking through Inkscape's history, these stages are often done by different people. So, I would suggest starting by focusing on step 1 and do as much as you can there, and move into #2 when you feel ready.
Hope this helps! Bryce
Inkscape's wiki is not always clear on where to find stuff, but I think [2] is a good start to add a link to the multipage-page. You might want to send around an e-mail over the devel and user maillinglists to request people to review the page and add something to it. It might also attract another developer to help you out , e.g. in making a page selector widget. Maybe someone knows Inkscape's architecture well and can tell you in which class to add what, but he does not have the time to code for himself: go to the wiki and add all you hae time for :) Being a code-monkey and just implementing what others have thought of can be pleasing from time to time :)
Cheers! Johan