On Sun, Dec 10, 2006 at 10:50:43AM -0500, faceman@...1574... wrote:
Hi, all.
I've been a regular Inkscape user since shortly after the fork from sodipodi. I love the program, transitioning from Xara on Windows to Inkscape on Linux has been good, if not always easy. So I'm always excited to get the newest releases of Inkscape with all kinds of great usable features. (Blur is a lifesaver for me - I've been using the nightly builds for a lot of work recently because of that!)
It's great to hear from you. :-)
I'm interested in helping the project, but I'm limited in what I can do. I'm not a coder, and I'd love to learn but don't have the time at the moment. I'm actually a graphic designer, which is why I use Inkscape heavily.
Welcome aboard. There are many different non-coding ways to help, especially during releases.
Anyway, one of the ways that I would like to help, at least peripherally, is to write an article about building a Linux graphic workstation that's optimized for 2-d graphic apps, primarily Inkscape and the Gimp.
I have been trying to understand the basics of how hardware rendering of graphic data really works in order to get a handle on this myself, but I haven't found anything readily available to tell me this info. That's why I want to write it.
I'm wondering if any of you (singular or multiple people) would be interested in helping me understand some basics so that I can write a very useful article. Please contact me if you are interested in helping.
My own knowledge of how hardware rendering works is rather limited, else I'd be happy to help. One thing I've heard is that most hardware graphics cards are designed for 3D rendering rather than 2D, and involves hardware chips for performing calculations for triangles and meshes, which is key for 3D graphics but not 2D. However, since 2D is by definition simpler than 3D, there are tricks that can be done... unfortunately I have no clue what those tricks are.
Two directions you may find topical to this (at least as far as how hardware rendering works) are game programming (gamasutra.com for instance), and info about X.org's 3D graphic hardware acceleration.
Maybe others have better tips...
Hope this helps, Bryce