On Oct 27, 2007, at 6:21 AM, Jim Ford wrote:

As DXF, SVG and many other vector graphic files are ASCII text files,

isn't it just a matter of parsing them with (say) Perl scripts to

convert one format to another? I've seen C++ and Python mentioned in

connection with creating DXF files, but isn't Perl better suited to the

manipulation of text files?

Obviously there are major problems that I'm not aware of! I'd be

interested if anyone can briefly sketch them out for me.

That's a bit like saying "English, Hawaiian and Swahili are all using ASCII characters, isn't it just a matter of parsing them to translate?"

The underlying concepts, grammars, etc., are very different. For example, one language might not have all the same terms or concepts involved, and a high level understanding and remapping of concepts would need to occur.

So for vector graphics, we're dealing with different ways of representing shapes, different mathematical curves, etc. and those need to be remapped at the high level. For example, is that cartoon characters eye a circle with a center and radius, an ellipse with more parameters, or a complex formula to be interpreted?