Hi! I'm Jan Darowski, form Poland, studying IT at the Warsaw University. Launchpad, IRC nick Slagvi. As for now I've developed few apps (mainly with Qt), but couldn't find a nice way to get into open source development (although I use it all the time). And here appears GSoC. I chose Inkscape because I often see many cool, free projects, which have even better functionality than commercial ones but for some reason they aren't as popular. I think that it's caused by less friendly, simple interface. I'm attending an Inkscape Internet course on my university and find it really nice and interesting project, which in many places can be improved. Later on I saw, that there's a very strong, active community what I find very important.
I chose to implement an old New From Template idea, as it looks like something improving reception of inkscape (especially for the new and very advanced users). It is also a well documented and described idea, so I believe that not only I find it important. Of course I already did required two patches, trying to choose these related with the subject. I already have some ideas/plans how to implement this idea but first I want to know if there aren't any more suggestions from the other developers.
And here are the the questions for you guys: 1. Is it still as important idea as I think? Maybe there is something more urgent what you can suggest to me? 2. As the ideas blueprint suggests ( https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/new-from-3. template-dialog) there has been some work done about this idea but I cannot find anything about what has been done and where it is. 3. Is there any support for the procedural templates written? That's another mentioned functionality I cannot find. Is it so important? Without very deep research in this direction I think It can require a lot of work to do it from the beginning. Maybe even to much as for the GSoC, as there are also other things to be done during this period.
As for now, I'm thinking about focusing on making a simple dialog, which covers current functionality + searching by tags + categorizing templates (things from wiki http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/NewFromTemplateSpec). As there will be a nice "New From Template" dialog, maybe I should also add one for creating templates? It shouldn't be very difficult, just another type of save dialog, with some additional template-specific fields and adding them into svg file.
2013/4/23 Jan Darowski <jan.darowski@...400...>:
And here are the the questions for you guys:
- Is it still as important idea as I think? Maybe there is something more
urgent what you can suggest to me?
'New from template' would still be useful.
- As the ideas blueprint suggests
(https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/new-from-3. template-dialog) there has been some work done about this idea but I cannot find anything about what has been done and where it is.
It doesn't seem like anything useful has been published yet, so I think it would be best to start from scratch.
- Is there any support for the procedural templates written? That's another
mentioned functionality I cannot find. Is it so important? Without very deep research in this direction I think It can require a lot of work to do it from the beginning. Maybe even to much as for the GSoC, as there are also other things to be done during this period.
Procedural templates is basically *the* reason to have this dialog at all.
A procedural template should just be a special Python extension. Most of the infrastructure, including automatically creating a dialog from an XML description of the parameters, is already in place within the extension system. You would just need to add some special cases and wire it to a separate dialog. It would be nice if you could also do some cleanup along the way.
As for now, I'm thinking about focusing on making a simple dialog, which covers current functionality + searching by tags + categorizing templates (things from wiki http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/NewFromTemplateSpec). As there will be a nice "New From Template" dialog, maybe I should also add one for creating templates? It shouldn't be very difficult, just another type of save dialog, with some additional template-specific fields and adding them into svg file.
I think just searching and tagging is too little for GSoC - this kind of dialog could be written in about 2 weeks. If you added procedural templates to the goals, the scope would be OK.
Note that the mockups on the wiki aren't very good. In particular, the two lists (categories and templates) take too much space. IMO, categories are not necessary if there are keywords. There should just be a flat list of templates, a search box and a view of the currently selected template, which should have two tabs: "template" and "information". The first tab would have only the drawing / preview of the template and controls for its parameters, while the second tab would list author information, keywords, detailed description of use, etc. - more or less the things in the "Tag / Value" list view in the first mockup.
Regards, Krzysztof
On Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 6:08 PM, Krzysztof Kosiński wrote:
- Is there any support for the procedural templates written? That's another
mentioned functionality I cannot find. Is it so important? Without very deep research in this direction I think It can require a lot of work to do it from the beginning. Maybe even to much as for the GSoC, as there are also other things to be done during this period.
Procedural templates is basically *the* reason to have this dialog at all.
Well, no. I added them on an afterthought back when I wrote the proposal :) Mostly I was bugged about the unmanageable mess that the list of templates becomes when you use them extensively.
A procedural template should just be a special Python extension. Most of the infrastructure, including automatically creating a dialog from an XML description of the parameters, is already in place within the extension system. You would just need to add some special cases and wire it to a separate dialog. It would be nice if you could also do some cleanup along the way.
I have a feeling that it would involve enhancing the extensions architecture. There's a bunch of things we cannot do yet, like registering extensions in arbitrary menus.
I think just searching and tagging is too little for GSoC - this kind of dialog could be written in about 2 weeks. If you added procedural templates to the goals, the scope would be OK.
+1
Note that the mockups on the wiki aren't very good. In particular, the two lists (categories and templates) take too much space. IMO, categories are not necessary if there are keywords. There should just be a flat list of templates, a search box and a view of the currently selected template, which should have two tabs: "template" and "information". The first tab would have only the drawing / preview of the template and controls for its parameters, while the second tab would list author information, keywords, detailed description of use, etc. - more or less the things in the "Tag / Value" list view in the first mockup.
Agreed :)
Alexandre Prokoudine http://libregraphicsworld.org
On Fri, 2013-04-26 at 18:22 +0400, Alexandre Prokoudine wrote:
I have a feeling that it would involve enhancing the extensions architecture. There's a bunch of things we cannot do yet, like registering extensions in arbitrary menus.
I'm not sure if this is the _best_ solution. Although of course I think the functionality should be available, just not used as a 'toxic workaround' for a more structured extensions system. For example, an import/export to/from the internet extension would be really good to have as a 'type' of extension which provides data specific for that kind of job.
So what type of extensions are there? Generators, filters, openers, meta-data-inizers, importers, exporters and templators?
I think we'll have a good grasp on this when it's possible to safely kick OCAL out of the codebase and into an extension without loosing any functionality.
Martin,
On Fri, 2013-04-26 at 16:08 +0200, Krzysztof Kosiński wrote:
A procedural template should just be a special Python extension. Most of the infrastructure, including automatically creating a dialog from an XML description of the parameters, is already in place within the extension system. You would just need to add some special cases and wire it to a separate dialog. It would be nice if you could also do some cleanup along the way.
It sounds like you have a good idea of what needs to happen. Is there a good blueprint or wiki page laying out some of the technical aspects? I think I understand what you're explaining, but a few diagrams would really help explain it.
Martin,
Thanks for the replies, I will think some more about it. I agree that some more explanation about the technical details of this solution would be useful. It's almost impossible during the planning stage to dig through all the code to find parts which could be reused.
2013/4/26 Martin Owens <doctormo@...400...>
On Fri, 2013-04-26 at 16:08 +0200, Krzysztof Kosiński wrote:
A procedural template should just be a special Python extension. Most of the infrastructure, including automatically creating a dialog from an XML description of the parameters, is already in place within the extension system. You would just need to add some special cases and wire it to a separate dialog. It would be nice if you could also do some cleanup along the way.
It sounds like you have a good idea of what needs to happen. Is there a good blueprint or wiki page laying out some of the technical aspects? I think I understand what you're explaining, but a few diagrams would really help explain it.
Martin,
Hi,
I saw some GSOC projects in the mailing list. I understand the value of most of them but the "new from template" puzzles me. Is this really a top priority on the todo list ? Do we really need to add a search through tags for less than 50 templates ? If someone is interested I'd really prefer to some progress of the filter editor. Right now the Ui is clearly outdated. Some people @ inkscapeforum say it's intimidating and that's right mostly imho because it lacks a preview of what each step does. http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/SpecFilterEditorUI would be a good start because it would be more handy than the current one. But it still lacks the preview like in http://slack.codemaniacs.com/mongoose/19-worley.jpg
Ultimately, imho, the LPE and filter editing should be merged into one tool.
Just my 2 cents
2013/4/23 Jan Darowski <jan.darowski@...400...>
Hi! I'm Jan Darowski, form Poland, studying IT at the Warsaw University. Launchpad, IRC nick Slagvi. As for now I've developed few apps (mainly with Qt), but couldn't find a nice way to get into open source development (although I use it all the time). And here appears GSoC. I chose Inkscape because I often see many cool, free projects, which have even better functionality than commercial ones but for some reason they aren't as popular. I think that it's caused by less friendly, simple interface. I'm attending an Inkscape Internet course on my university and find it really nice and interesting project, which in many places can be improved. Later on I saw, that there's a very strong, active community what I find very important.
I chose to implement an old New From Template idea, as it looks like something improving reception of inkscape (especially for the new and very advanced users). It is also a well documented and described idea, so I believe that not only I find it important. Of course I already did required two patches, trying to choose these related with the subject. I already have some ideas/plans how to implement this idea but first I want to know if there aren't any more suggestions from the other developers.
And here are the the questions for you guys:
- Is it still as important idea as I think? Maybe there is something more
urgent what you can suggest to me? 2. As the ideas blueprint suggests ( https://blueprints.launchpad.net/inkscape/+spec/new-from-3. template-dialog) there has been some work done about this idea but I cannot find anything about what has been done and where it is. 3. Is there any support for the procedural templates written? That's another mentioned functionality I cannot find. Is it so important? Without very deep research in this direction I think It can require a lot of work to do it from the beginning. Maybe even to much as for the GSoC, as there are also other things to be done during this period.
As for now, I'm thinking about focusing on making a simple dialog, which covers current functionality + searching by tags + categorizing templates (things from wiki http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/NewFromTemplateSpec). As there will be a nice "New From Template" dialog, maybe I should also add one for creating templates? It shouldn't be very difficult, just another type of save dialog, with some additional template-specific fields and adding them into svg file.
Try New Relic Now & We'll Send You this Cool Shirt New Relic is the only SaaS-based application performance monitoring service that delivers powerful full stack analytics. Optimize and monitor your browser, app, & servers with just a few lines of code. Try New Relic and get this awesome Nerd Life shirt! http://p.sf.net/sfu/newrelic_d2d_apr _______________________________________________ Inkscape-devel mailing list Inkscape-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel
Victor,
Your mail puzzles me too :) Submission period for GSoC is over. Now that it's time to vote on proposals made by students, what is it that you expect us to do, exactly? :)
Alexandre
On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 3:39 AM, pennec victor wrote:
Hi,
I saw some GSOC projects in the mailing list. I understand the value of most of them but the "new from template" puzzles me. Is this really a top priority on the todo list ? Do we really need to add a search through tags for less than 50 templates ? If someone is interested I'd really prefer to some progress of the filter editor. Right now the Ui is clearly outdated. Some people @ inkscapeforum say it's intimidating and that's right mostly imho because it lacks a preview of what each step does. http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/SpecFilterEditorUI would be a good start because it would be more handy than the current one. But it still lacks the preview like in http://slack.codemaniacs.com/mongoose/19-worley.jpg
Ultimately, imho, the LPE and filter editing should be merged into one tool.
Just my 2 cents
Sorry I don't read/follow the list daily so I didn't see the GSOC proposal were over.
I just wanted to point that among all proposals, the "New from template" add little value. This is my opinion, you could disagree ;)
As the original poster asked for other ideas I propose the blueprint about filter editing. If it's far from perfect, it would be a major step in filter edition. I think this tool is underestimated and so underexploited. (even if there are some flaws in the SVG spec,) the main problem of using filter in inkscape is the outdated UI.
2013/5/6 Alexandre Prokoudine <alexandre.prokoudine@...400...>
Victor,
Your mail puzzles me too :) Submission period for GSoC is over. Now that it's time to vote on proposals made by students, what is it that you expect us to do, exactly? :)
Alexandre
On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 3:39 AM, pennec victor wrote:
Hi,
I saw some GSOC projects in the mailing list. I understand the value of
most
of them but the "new from template" puzzles me. Is this really a top priority on the todo list ? Do we really need to add a search through
tags
for less than 50 templates ? If someone is interested I'd really prefer to some progress of the filter editor. Right now the Ui is clearly outdated. Some people @ inkscapeforum say it's intimidating and that's right mostly imho because it lacks a preview of what each step does. http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/SpecFilterEditorUI would be a
good
start because it would be more handy than the current one. But it still lacks the preview like in http://slack.codemaniacs.com/mongoose/19-worley.jpg
Ultimately, imho, the LPE and filter editing should be merged into one
tool.
Just my 2 cents
On 05/06/2013 01:39 AM, pennec victor wrote:
Hi,
I saw some GSOC projects in the mailing list. I understand the value of most of them but the "new from template" puzzles me. Is this really a top priority on the todo list ? Do we really need to add a search through tags for less than 50 templates ?
I submitted a GSoC proposal about PCB editing. The spec is at [1]. An important part of that is a "component library" that requires functionality errily similar to the "new from template" function, so at least those two would go well in conjunction.
Regards, jaseg
[1] http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/SpecElectronicsCAD
participants (6)
-
Alexandre Prokoudine -
Jan Darowski -
Krzysztof Kosiński -
Martin Owens -
pennec victor -
Sebastian Götte