[Skencil-devel] Revitalising Skencil (Re: Debian packaging removal)

[Bernhard Reiter]

Am Dienstag, 7. September 2010 13:40:26 schrieb Igor Novikov:
> > In some ways, sk1 is a successor to Skencil I guess.
> > So the question is: Who needs Skencil?
>
> We have received some user's feedback that sK1 is a complex
> and heavyweight i.e. something like "Please return our simple
> and lightweight Sketch!" :) I cannot estimate how much users
> wish Skencil revitalizing but such requests are really.

Oh, yes, this is nice.
Personally I've nevery tried sK1, so I cannot judge.
Skencil was always something nice and elegant to me.

> > If you are interested: What are your suggestions?
>
> Here is a draft:
>
> 1.Bugfixing for tk8.5/tk8.6
> 2.Project refactoring for distutils build
> 3.Backport of some improvements from sK1
> 3.Release for ver.0.6.18

Sounds all good. What do you need from me?
I can give your folks development acccess. 
Just register on wald and let me know the ids.

Persoally I would make a release shortly after 1.
just to send a message that Skencil is still there and 
get packagers going.

After 3. I would release 1.0 because it is fully usable.
(Many people do not try 0.x software.)

> 4.Fast porting on Gtk widgetset in branch 0.8.x
>
> Details for last item: unfortunately tk widgetset is out of date.
> ttk widgets are not perfect because ttk API are hidden in
> conventional tcl/tk so there is no way interacting on C level
> to use native themes. i.e. integration into desktop environment
> is impossible. Also a lot of workarounds is required to utilize ttk in
> sK1 (we have special sk1sdk package  for they). So migration on
> mainstream widgetset is desirable.
>
> Branch 0.7.x is a complex solution for this because it uses libart canvas.
> I understand that it is due achieving ability to create win32 port but
> more elegant way is Gtk DrawingArea usage to substitute
> custom tk Widget instance. The same Xlib function calls can be used
> for drawing on Gtk DrawingArea surface.

Your analysis will be much better than mine for this point.
I believe that the 0.7. approach was chosen out of historical reasons.
So development would be for version 2.x or 1.2.x just to have a 
meaningful number.

> After this milestone win23 port is also possible. Xilb functionality
> can be substituted by Cairo library function calls.

If we are thinking so radical, we could also consider Qt4.
(Currently I am involved in a Qt4 to Maemo port of a large application
and Qt4 seems to be quite good these days.)
But of course I understand that your interest in Skencil is
because it is still very close to sk1. That is fine if keeping Skencil 
close is bringing it developers.

> > Some old times like me just are used to Skencil.
> > And Skencil was packaged to Debian. Hopefully sK1 also get a packages
> > soon. http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=477101
>
> I have stopped the work because packaging for Debian is a complex issue but
> during this year we have splitted  sK1 
> on several packages to synchronize changes 
> with UniConvertor. The work will be continue after sK1 ver.0.9.1 release. 
> It  seems this will be a last tk version because ver.1.0 will be Gtk based.

Having a package for your application is very important. 
Especially for Debian, as this is a multiplier for several derived 
GNU platforms. (Think Ubuntu. :) )

This is why it would be so important to keep the Skencil package in Debian.
Right now it still is in good shape. We just would need to find a Debian 
developers which would be okay to keep it there.

Best,
Bernhard

-- 
Managing Director - Owner: www.intevation.net       (Free Software Company)
Deputy Coordinator Germany: fsfe.org. Board member: www.kolabsys.com.
Intevation GmbH, Osnabrück, DE; Amtsgericht Osnabrück, HRB 18998
Geschäftsführer Frank Koormann, Bernhard Reiter, Dr. Jan-Oliver Wagner
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