[Skencil-users] Join forces for skencil1/sK1? (was: sK1)

[Igor Novikov]

Hi Bernhard,

>They do not? I don't know. I would hope they would provide it.
>As for typesetting texts, the libraries should be suitable I guess,
>but for converting fonts into curves to do special effects
>low level access is needed, I agree.

GIMP and Inkscape use Xft engine to draw text strings therefore
text objects have not outline property, distance between characters and
space width can not be under control, all letters should be disposed on
common base line. Such text rendering is satisfactory for UI, but very
primitive for good vector graphics editor. XaraLX for example has more
advanced text engine.

All these tasks can be solved by introducing "glyph" object i.e. text object
will be dynamic group of glyphs. Each glyph should has own font property,
transformation history etc.

>It would provide the low level bindings, I guess.
>The big problems for most users of Skencil 0.6 with Tcl/tk is
>that handling fonts was so difficult.
>Many users just would want to install a few additional fonts.

To resolve "text problem" we can divide this issue on subissues:

1. Collect font files paths in common dictionary with corresponded font
names.
2. Exctract on runtime character glyphs with all according font metrics.

Second task can be doing by FreeType2 if we provide absolute path to font
file.

For first task we can use as direct search (but in this case we will find
many fonts,
which are not installed in the system, for example, Java installation
contains own
fonts) or fontconfig. Direct search also can be used to provide access for
fonts
which are not installed in the system and rarely needed in design.

>Bernhard (H.) will be back this monday...

It would be interesting to discuss all these problems with Sketch/Skencil
author :)

>Can you tell us on what you needed to change to build Skencil on Mandriva
>2007? (Best on skencil-devel.)

hmm... complex question. As you understand, the main problem is compilation
of
Skencil native modules. The following files are absent in MDK2007
distribution,
as in regular rpm, and in devel rpm:

/usr/lib/pkgconfig/gtk+-2.0.pc
/usr/lib/pkgconfig/gdk-x11-2.0.pc
/usr/lib/pkgconfig/gdk-pixbuf-2.0.pc
/usr/lib/pkgconfig/gdk-pixbuf-xlib-2.0.pc
/usr/lib/pkgconfig/pango.pc
/usr/lib/pkgconfig/pangoft2.pc
/usr/lib/pkgconfig/pangox.pc
/usr/lib/pkgconfig/pangoxft.pc
/usr/lib/pkgconfig/atk.pc
/usr/lib/pkgconfig/pygtk-2.0.pc

May be this list is not complete. I just copied these files from my Wing IDE
installation
(it contains own gtk+ engine and package configs) and manualy edit paths in
all these files.
But it seems the best way is a build without pkgconfig support, at least for
MDK2007.

>I completly agree and installation is important. I have not tried
>Inkscape's autopackages. Do they allow installation of development
snapshots?
>I mean: What would be the difference of having spec files for Mandriva
RPMs?

Inkscape's autopackages allow install latest development builds, but only on
new distros.
For example it useful for MDK2007, but doesn't install Inkscape on MDK2005.
Therefore
this way is not a silver bullet also.

Sincerely,

Igor Novikov
sK1 Team
http://sk1.sf.net
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