Hi Peter and Craig,

A while back we discussed an idea of packaging the scribus pdf/ps import/export code for use with Inkscape, since Inkscape's pdf/ps (esp. EPS import) support is so poor.

However it occurs to me that another solution would be to simply give scribus some commandline options for doing import/export. E.g.

scribus -i filename.eps -e filename.svg

Inkscape would then be able to make use of scribus' import/export capabilities via its extension mechanism. Since for all practical intents and purposes, people would need to use scribus for getting eps/pdf converted to svg for use in inkscape already anyway, I don't think this imposes much additional dependency hassle for them.

I looked into the scribus code a bit to see how this could be implemented. I wasn't sure how to call the import/export plugins, but I sketched out the code for handling the -i/-e commandline options as a start... See the attached patch. I put TODO's where the code to invoke the import/export plugins would go.

I think that if it supported command line options for your input/output operators, scribus would become more widely useful, especially for commercial users (look at http://www.pdftron.com/store.html).

Bryce

--- main.cpp.orig 2005-09-24 22:48:40.000000000 -0700 +++ main.cpp 2005-09-24 22:17:48.000000000 -0700 @@ -52,6 +52,8 @@ #define ARG_NOSPLASH "--no-splash" #define ARG_NOGUI "--no-gui" #define ARG_DISPLAY "--display" +#define ARG_IMPORT "--import" +#define ARG_EXPORT "--export"

#define ARG_VERSION_SHORT "-v" #define ARG_HELP_SHORT "-h" @@ -60,12 +62,16 @@ #define ARG_NOSPLASH_SHORT "-s" #define ARG_NOGUI_SHORT "-g" #define ARG_DISPLAY_SHORT "-d" +#define ARG_IMPORT_SHORT "-i" +#define ARG_EXPORT_SHORT "-e"

QString lang = ""; bool showSplash = true; bool useGui = true; QString file; +QString import_filename = ""; +QString export_filename = "";

void showUsage(); void showAvailLangs(); @@ -102,6 +108,20 @@ lang = argv[i]; } else if (arg == ARG_NOSPLASH || arg == ARG_NOSPLASH_SHORT) { showSplash = false; + } else if ((arg == ARG_IMPORT || arg == ARG_IMPORT_SHORT) && (++i < argc)) { + import_filename = QFile::decodeName(argv[i]); + if (!QFileInfo(import_filename).exists()) { + std::cout << std::endl; + if (import_filename.left(1) == "-" || import_filename.left(2) == "--") { + std::cout << "Invalid argument: " << import_filename << std::endl; + } else { + std::cout << "File " << import_filename << "does not exist, aborting." << std::endl; + } + showUsage(); + return 0; + } + } else if ((arg == ARG_EXPORT || arg == ARG_EXPORT_SHORT) && (++i < argc)) { + export_filename = QFile::decodeName(argv[i]); } else if (arg == ARG_NOGUI || arg == ARG_NOGUI_SHORT) { useGui = false; } else if ((arg == ARG_DISPLAY || arg==ARG_DISPLAY_SHORT) && ++i < argc) { @@ -123,7 +143,8 @@ }

if (useGui) - return mainGui(argc, argv); + return mainGui(argc, argv); + }

/*! @@ -145,6 +166,8 @@ std::cout << "-la, --langs-available Lists the currently installed interface languages" << std::endl; std::cout << "-h, --help Print help (this message) and exit" << std::endl; std::cout << "-v, --version Output version information and exit" << std::endl; + std::cout << "-i, --import <file> Import given filename" << std::endl; + std::cout << "-e, --export <file> Export given filename" << std::endl; /* std::cout << "-file|-- name Open file 'name'" << std::endl; std::cout << "name Open file 'name', the file name must not begin with '-'" << std::endl; @@ -214,10 +237,24 @@

scribus->show(); scribus->ShowSubs(); - if (file != "") - scribus->LadeDoc(file); + if (file != "") { + scribus->LadeDoc(file); + } else if (import_filename != "") { + // TODO: Import the file... + } scribus->setFocus(); - return app.exec(); + + if (export_filename != "") { + QFile f(export_filename); + if (f.exists()) { + std::cout << "Cannot overwrite existing file " << export_filename << std::endl; + return -1; + } + // TODO: Export the file... + return 0; + } else { + return app.exec(); + } }

/*!