Fwd: Announcing XSVG mailing list (keywords: Xr, Xc, Postscript-like API for drawing in X)

[Vadim Plessky]

Hi All,

Carl Worth launched new mailing list  - XSVG.
See details of announce below.

I invite all people interested in SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), PostScript 
rendering model and in X technologies to subscribe to that list and discuss 
("SVG support for the X Window System", see list of related topics below).

There are high chances that this library will find its way into XFree86 core 
distribution, and become present on *any* Linux Desktop. Or just becomes 
low-level library installed on pair with libpng, etc.
Therefor, SVG can become very common and widely used.
Xr and Xc are new XFree86 extensions, Carl Worth is working on those 
extensions together with Keith Packard (the man behind RENDER extension).
Those extensions would be part of upcoming XFree86 4.3.0

Also, some info from Carl's previous mail:
-------------------------------------------------------
On Nov 4, Vadim Plessky wrote:
 > Can you explain pls idea of libxrsvg, and how it is related to librsvg2?
 > I think I missed the very beginning of this thread.

Sure. I've been working on the Xr library with Keith Packard. Xr
provides a Postscript-like API and uses the Render extension to draw
fancy graphics, (eg. translucent anti-aliased stroked splines, etc),
using the Render extension. The great thing about this is that all the
hard graphics work is done on the server side and therefore can all be
accelerated using modern 3D graphics processors.

There's also a layer under Xr called Xc which will eventually allow Xr
to work even on servers without the render extension, (or even
generate output other than an X window such as a PNG image or a PDF
file).

I found I needed to draw some SVG files, and naturally I wanted to use
Xr to do it. Never wanting to reinvent the wheel if I don't have to, I
looked around and found librsvg. librsvg didn't do exactly what I
wanted, so I ripped out all of the dependencies on libart, pango, gdk,
glib, etc. and made a new library called libsvg.

libsvg has already evolved quite a bit from what I started
with. There's almost no original librsvg code in there anymore. The
big architectural change is that where librsvg has a
render-as-you-parse model, libsvg parses the SVG file and creates a
data structure which can then be rendered, (potentially many times).

 > Do you plan to have such library "built-in" into XFree86
 > distribution?

If XFree86 wants to take it, I think that would make a lot of
sense. The first application I see in the XFree86 tree is that the
xcursorgen program which generates the fancy new translucent cursors
could definitely benefit from SVG support.

--------------------------------------

Regards,

Vadim

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Announcing xsvg mailing list
Date: Sunday 10 November 2002 12:58 am
From: Carl Worth <cworth at east.isi.edu>
To: XSVG <xsvg at neptune.east.isi.edu>
...

Several individuals have expressed interest in an xsvg mailing list,
so I've set this up. I haven't subscribed anyone, so if you'd like to
join, please see instructions at:

	http://neptune.east.isi.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/xsvg

The purpose of this mailing list is to discuss SVG support for the X
Window System. Appropriate topics for discussion include the
following:

xsvg		X11 SVG viewer (using libxrsvg)

libxrsvg	Render libsvg objects with Xr

libsvg		Parse SVG documents, (relies on libxml2 and libpng),
		and render via abstract rendering interface.

Xr		Postscript-like API for drawing in X, (using Xc)
		Will also eventually support PNG/PDF output as well.

Xc		Intended to provide client-side emulation of the
		RENDER extension, (still unfinished)

I'm also very interested in hearing about ways others want to use
these libraries -- including any recommendations for improving the
APIs. Feel free to discuss other such applications on this list.

The code is still progressing rapidly, so nothing has been released,
but things are available from CVS. The xsvg client and its supporting
svg libraries are available from:

        cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs at cvs.east.isi.edu:/cvs/cworth login
        (empty password)
        co xsvg
        co libxrsvg
        co libsvg

Additionally, the Xr/Xc libraries can be obtained from keithp's CVS
server:

        cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs at keithp.com:/local/src/CVS login
        (empty password)
        co Xr
        co Xc

I've been running xsvg on the tests from the W3C SVG conformance
suite. For the tests which pass I have been posting source SVG files,
xsvg results and the reference images at:

	http://keithp.com/~cworth/svg/conformance/

-Carl

--
Carl Worth
USC Information Sciences Institute                 cworth at east.isi.edu
3811 N. Fairfax Dr. #200, Arlington VA 22203		  703-812-3725

-------------------------------------------------------

-- 

Vadim Plessky
http://kde2.newmail.ru  (English)
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