On Fri, 2006-03-17 at 15:05 -0600, Terry Hancock wrote:
I'm writing an application which is not just a filter, but should run alongside Inkscape, I want to be able to pass information to and from it. I think I can solve the interprocess communication problem in my own software (not trivial since I've never tried it, but there are facilities for it in Python).
Well, to be entirely honest, the effects system really isn't designed for this. Probably one thing that you'll run into is that the execution of the script is a blocking call, so there is no way to do constant interaction between Inkscape and the script.
One thing that you might consider is that we'll probably implement something like "Live Effects" here pretty shortly. I've been thinking about it, and Aaron made a branch for it, so it's definitely on the table (though, we haven't coordinated). What that would allow is the script to be run every time one of the base objects changes. So, if you can think in the interpolate case, it would redo the interpolation each time one of the base paths changes. This might be useful for you. Also, remember that Inkscape will leave other XML namespaces in the document. So you can add additional properties in the SVG by adding an additional namespace for you effect.
In the short term, someone would have to re-execute the effect with changes, but that is made easier by there being a hot key for "Last Effect".
As far as allowing for the events and interaction, that will come. It's currently on hold as the DOM is not finished yet. But, it is critical for having a "first class extension system" which is listed as one of the project's goals.
--Ted