Dear user of pstoedit and/or importps

I just want to inform you about a new release of pstoedit/importps.
See http://www.pstoedit.net/pstoedit/changelog.htm for a list of recent changes.
As usual, get the current version from http://www.pstoedit.net/pstoedit/
So far the Solaris binary is still version 3.31 but I plan to update the
binaries in the next days.

This is the anniversary edition. The pstoedit project started in 1993.

Best Regards

Wolfgang Glunz - wglunz@...



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Next version of AutoTrace will contain gettext for internationalization.
Currently there is only English, German and Japanese. Please provide po files in
other languages.
Does anyone know how get gettext work with Visual C++?

Greetings
Martin

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Currently AutoTrace is able to use libraries like ImageMagick or pstoedit.
To do this configure must recognize it. Would it be a better way to change the
code that AutoTrace checks at runtime whether these libraries or dlls are
present and use them.

Greetings
Martin

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-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Weber [mailto:martweb@...]
Sent: Dienstag, 7. Januar 2003 15:11
To: autotrace@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [AutoTrace] Usage of libaries

Currently AutoTrace is able to use libraries like ImageMagick or pstoedit.
To do this configure must recognize it. Would it be a better way to change the
code that AutoTrace checks at runtime whether these libraries or dlls are
present and use them.

Greetings
Martin

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Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.

Currently I am thinking about which GUI to use for AutoTrace. We need one
that is highly portable also to non Unix systems. What you think about
WxWindows versus Gtk?

Greetings
Martin


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WxWindows works on MacOSX?
I know Some people are working on porting Gtk+ to MacOSX.

Yes, WxWindows works also on MacOSX!

> WxWindows works on MacOSX?
> I know Some people are working on porting Gtk+ to MacOSX.
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

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Many of you wanted configuration files with a fixed set of parameters. I
think we should do this in xml using libxml2.

Martin

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> Many of you wanted configuration files with a fixed set of parameters. I
> think we should do this in xml using libxml2.

Sorry, could you tell me the context of what you are talking about.
It seems for me that your mail is something to do with my job but
I cannot understand well.

-----Original Message-----
From: Martin Weber [mailto:martweb@...]
Sent: Donnerstag, 9. Januar 2003 07:38
To: autotrace@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [AutoTrace] GUI

Yes, WxWindows works also on MacOSX!

> WxWindows works on MacOSX?
> I know Some people are working on porting Gtk+ to MacOSX.
>
>
> 
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

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I used the following to convert a faily small scanned image. The
process seemed to take a very long time and had to break out.

are there some other options I should use?

autotrace -output-format=dxf -output-file=500c.dxf 500c.tif

Thanks

Phill

Is there anyone outside that wants to create code, documentation or anything
else for AutoTrace?

Greetings
Martin

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What do you think about FOX (http://www.fox-toolkit.org/) and Anti-Grain
(http://www.antigrain.com/)?

Greetings
Martin

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I was considering offering to write a documentation for the usage of
the options, but I don't even understand a lot of them myself.  I'm
not a programmer at all, I don't know what most of the paramaters do,
but if there's any way I can help with documentation, I'd be happy.
I'm in school, so don't have a lot of time, it might take a while for
me to do anything.

(I have found great use for the program already for our religious
community - I'm studying to be a priest.  It's useful for our
publications.  If you're interested, I can show a couple of examples.)

Please let me know if I can help.

Br. Joshua Facemyer, CPM

--- In autotrace@yahoogroups.com, Martin Weber <martweb@g...> wrote:
> Is there anyone outside that wants to create code, documentation or
anything
> else for AutoTrace?
>
> Greetings
> Martin
>
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On Tuesday 14 January 2003 09:40, you wrote:
> Is there anyone outside that wants to create code, documentation or
> anything else for AutoTrace?
>
> Greetings
> Martin

I have a output writer for ILDA (lasershow graphics) in the works, but it
is not finished yet....

Regards, Dan.

Great, send it to me when it is ready.

> On Tuesday 14 January 2003 09:40, you wrote:
> > Is there anyone outside that wants to create code, documentation or
> > anything else for AutoTrace?
> >
> > Greetings
> > Martin
>
> I have a output writer for ILDA (lasershow graphics) in the works, but it
> is not finished yet....
>
> Regards, Dan.
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

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Hi. I'm trying to use autotrace (wonderful program) to generate dxf output
which I can then load into the drawing editor "dia".

It seems to generate a dxf file, but when I load it into dia, I get a blank
canvas. I have tried several versions of dia. The EPS output from autotrace
seems fine. I don't (think I) have anything else which will read dxf format,
I'm not sure whether this is a dia or autotrace problem. Oh, this is under
Redhat 6.2.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Many thanks

	 Paul

Should we add a Sobel filter in the next release? I think it is better than
the alternatives Prewitt, Roberts, Laplace ...

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I'm sorry. I could not join many important and interesting discussion
for long time. Hereafter, I'll find time for autotrace anyway.

> Currently I am thinking about which GUI to use for AutoTrace. We need one
> that is highly portable also to non Unix systems. What you think about
> WxWindows versus Gtk?
>
> Greetings
> Martin

First of all my frontline might be rejected by Martin because he might
want a GUI front-end runs on Windows.

I think You should add Qt to candidates of toolkits.

I think there are three requirements:

1. the toolkit can run on Windows.
    Frontline is based on gnome. Some of gnome libraries cannot
    run on Windows, as far as I know.
    Gtk+ and Qt satisfy this requirement.
    Of course Java suggested by Wolfgang satisfies this requirement.
    WxWindows also satisfies this requirement, too.

2. the toolkit provide a routine that draws bezier curves on a window.
    (Do you want write codes that renders splines by your self?)

    At least the gnome-canvas satisfies this requirement.
    This is the reason why Frontline depends on gnome.
    (There is gtk-canvas, porting gnome-canvas to gtk+
    http://www.atai.org/gtk-canvas/. However, it is based on gtk+-1.2.
    My interest is that porting frontline from gnome-1.4 to gnome-2.0 now.)

    As far as I know Gtk+ itself doesn't have such a rich rendering
    function.

    Qt might have. It is worth to check.

    Java has Java-2D rich rendering function.

    I don't know other GUI toolkit well.
    Even if a toolkit don't have such function, libart will help you.
    (libart might run on Windows...) However, some efforts are needed
    to use libart with a toolkit.

3. the toolkit must be free software.
    Too much?  But I'd like you to consider this requirement.

Masatake YAMATO

Sorry to be late to answer.

> Currently AutoTrace is able to use libraries like ImageMagick or pstoedit.
> To do this configure must recognize it. Would it be a better way to change the
> code that AutoTrace checks at runtime whether these libraries or dlls are
> present and use them.

Finally, I cannot find any reason to object to this, however I'm not familiar
with this approach. What I'm familiar with using additional layer.

The model of what you wrote:

     Autotrace <-[dynamic-link]- ImageMagick
               <-[dynamic-link]- pstoedit


The model of what I propose here:

     Autotrace <-[dynamic-link]- gmodule-module <-[static-link]- ImageMagick
               <-[dynamic-link]- gmodule-module <-[static-link]- pstoedit
                               ^ well defined interface

I call "gmodule-module <-[static-link]- ImageMagick" a input plugin; and
gmodule-module <-[static-link]- pstoedit a output plugin.

1. using popt
    I'd like to use a command line parser popt which is much
    richer than getopt. Could someone check whether popt works
    well on Windows.


2. using glib
    At least I need this to implement input output plugin.
    glib works well on Windows. It also provides gthread,
    a portable thread layer.

    Long time ago, Martin wrote C++ standard lib shows better
    efficiency than glib about memory management. I wonder
    whether Martin uses g_mem_chunk or not.

    If permited, As a first step, I'll introduce glib to
    input and output related code only.

3. using gimp
    I think autotrace needs much richer image preprocess
    layer to produce better result.
    As I wrote before, Gimp has such image processing
    functions. I'm looking for the way to use Gimp's function
    in autotrace.

    I guess Martin doesn't want to such approach. In stead he
    might want we build such functions in autotrace...but
    I don't want to implement functions gimp, a free software,
    has without much strong reason.

Regards,
Masatake

Sorry to be late to answer.

> I was considering offering to write a documentation for the usage of
> the options, but I don't even understand a lot of them myself.
Great! you are the people I'm looking for.
I don't also understand well!

> I'm not a programmer at all, I don't know what most of the paramaters do,
> but if there's any way I can help with documentation,

Ok. About paramaters, Martin, the author of autotrace will help you.
Could tell us a structure of the document you are imaging now.
...e.g.

Section 1. History of AutoTrace
Section 2. License
Section 3. Getting and Installing AutoTrace
...
Section n. To join development:)

You idea might be a starting-point for the discussion.

BTW, which document formats we should ues?  I think the plain text
format is not acceptable because we will use many figures in the
document. Tell me which document format you are familiar with. I'm
happy if you tell us other that M$-Word:-P

Frontline, a GUI frontend for autotrace will help you to create a
figure in the document.

If you write the first draft version, I'll create a CVS repository.
I can put the draft versoin to the repository. Unfortunately Martin
cannot do this. So push me when the time comes. If you know the
usage of CVS and have an account on sourceforge.net, let us know.

> I'd be happy.
> I'm in school, so don't have a lot of time, it might take a while for
> me to do anything.
>
> (I have found great use for the program already for our religious
> community - I'm studying to be a priest.  It's useful for our
> publications.  If you're interested, I can show a couple of examples.)
>
> Please let me know if I can help.
>
> Br. Joshua Facemyer, CPM

Please write in the document how you use autotrace for your religious
community if possible. Real examples make the document vividly!

In other hand, I'm using autotrace only for hacking:-P

Regareds,
Masatake YAMATO
<jet@...>

Yes and no. We can use GIMP for preprocessing but most filters are not very
helpful. I plan a set of filters that are optimally adopted to the tracing
process and only those should be included. By the way feel free to use
glib-1.2

Martin

Masatake YAMATO schrieb:

> 1. using popt
>    I'd like to use a command line parser popt which is much
>    richer than getopt. Could someone check whether popt works
>    well on Windows.
>
>
> 2. using glib
>    At least I need this to implement input output plugin.
>    glib works well on Windows. It also provides gthread,
>    a portable thread layer.
>
>    Long time ago, Martin wrote C++ standard lib shows better
>    efficiency than glib about memory management. I wonder
>    whether Martin uses g_mem_chunk or not.
>
>    If permited, As a first step, I'll introduce glib to
>    input and output related code only.
>
> 3. using gimp
>    I think autotrace needs much richer image preprocess
>    layer to produce better result.
>    As I wrote before, Gimp has such image processing
>    functions. I'm looking for the way to use Gimp's function
>    in autotrace.
>
>    I guess Martin doesn't want to such approach. In stead he
>    might want we build such functions in autotrace...but
>    I don't want to implement functions gimp, a free software,
>    has without much strong reason.
>
> Regards,
> Masatake
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

I think it is not so importnad in which format the docu is written but it
should be exported as pdf.

Masatake YAMATO schrieb:

> Sorry to be late to answer.
>
> > I was considering offering to write a documentation for the usage of
> > the options, but I don't even understand a lot of them myself.
> Great! you are the people I'm looking for.
> I don't also understand well!
>
> > I'm not a programmer at all, I don't know what most of the paramaters do,
> > but if there's any way I can help with documentation,
>
> Ok. About paramaters, Martin, the author of autotrace will help you.
> Could tell us a structure of the document you are imaging now.
> ...e.g.
>
> Section 1. History of AutoTrace
> Section 2. License
> Section 3. Getting and Installing AutoTrace
> ...
> Section n. To join development:)
>
> You idea might be a starting-point for the discussion.
>
> BTW, which document formats we should ues?  I think the plain text
> format is not acceptable because we will use many figures in the
> document. Tell me which document format you are familiar with. I'm
> happy if you tell us other that M$-Word:-P
>
> Frontline, a GUI frontend for autotrace will help you to create a
> figure in the document.
>
> If you write the first draft version, I'll create a CVS repository.
> I can put the draft versoin to the repository. Unfortunately Martin
> cannot do this. So push me when the time comes. If you know the
> usage of CVS and have an account on sourceforge.net, let us know.
>
> > I'd be happy.
> > I'm in school, so don't have a lot of time, it might take a while for
> > me to do anything.
> >
> > (I have found great use for the program already for our religious
> > community - I'm studying to be a priest.  It's useful for our
> > publications.  If you're interested, I can show a couple of examples.)
> >
> > Please let me know if I can help.
> >
> > Br. Joshua Facemyer, CPM
>
> Please write in the document how you use autotrace for your religious
> community if possible. Real examples make the document vividly!
>
> In other hand, I'm using autotrace only for hacking:-P
>
> Regareds,
> Masatake YAMATO
> <jet@...>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/

Hi All,

It's really been a while :)

Since I'm almost over with a huge work I was following, I really hope to
have more time to work on my project that uses Autotrace to aid in
animation/cartoon production.

As a reminder, my application will use mainly Qt/KDE. Also, note that I'm
potentially not aware of important developements you've done in the past
months (I know now we have line width support, but I missed other
eventually important features)

Regarding the question from Martin for a GUI, Masatake said:

> I think You should add Qt to candidates of toolkits.

You could expect something from me, regarding this. I've already got a
demo app that loads an image from a scanner, and then handles it down to
Autotrace. I still have to study AT vector lists and how to render them on
a QtCanvas.

After this work, I think a Qt/KDE application that could be used as AT
interface for Qt-supported OSes should be rather easy to do. And probably
creating a KPart object to allow any KDE app to use AT really easily won't
be much harder.


That said, and regarding what "toolkit" to use to write a GUI for AT, I
think a different kind of approach would be better: namely creating some
"components" that interfaces with AT for every platform.
This way, I can create a Qt widget/KDE KPart, Masatake can create a Gnome
Bonobo object, someone else a M$
COM/ActiveX/OCX/<nameofthemonthforthething> on Windows, or a Cocoa object
on OSX (if such a thing exists :).

This way, we can easily use specialized platform API to load images and to
export drawings (for example, QtCanvas can or will export drawings to SVG)
without first creating an "AT way to do it" that must be designed,
written, tested and documented by us, and learned by everyone else, and
without linking AT to specific libraries or even programming languages
("components" are language neutral almost everywhere)

The advantages are:
- less work to do: we're almost here from the AT point of view.
- less new strange things to learn for us :^)
- less dependency-management code in autotrace library
- freedom for a lot of people to create apps that use autotrace with the
tools they already know (whatever those tools are)
- better support for using AT as a tool for other independent apps (that's
coincidentally what I'm trying to do now... :^)

Next things to do: for me, studying what you've done in the past 6
months... ^^;;;
And, if not already done, we should try to define some "smart" helper
functions/APIs/Docs that help people trying to load images in "AT format",
or trying to parse its vector format to output it in a *Canvas or in a
file.
After that, we should try to find people wanting to help with the creation
of the components. I volounteer for the Qt widget/KDE KPart :)


Ciao,
   Roberto

> Yes and no. We can use GIMP for preprocessing but most filters are not very
> helpful. I plan a set of filters that are optimally adopted to the tracing
> process and only those should be included.

Ok. I think we need a kind of framework for preprocessing(e.g. preprocessing
plugin).

Anyway I'll prowl around Gimp. I need color reduction filter.

> By the way feel free to use
> glib-1.2
I'd like to use glib-2.0. It works better on Windows than glib-1.2.

Masatake

(I had a mail related trouble, so if you receive this mail more than
twice, forgive me.)

> I think it is not so importnad in which format the docu is written but it
> should be exported as pdf.

If only pdf is given, it is difficult to review, modify, revise,
be co-author. A pdf document should be generated from something other
format. (make pdf, make html, make info...)

We can review, modify, revise, be co-author with the "something other
format." I heard about gtkdoc or docbook is in fashion. Of course,
the moust important thing is how Joshua Facemyer is familiar with
the "something other format."

Masatake YAMATO

Yes, I was to fast in mailing my proposal. Yesterday evening I thought about
this problem and I think we should use html.

Greetings
Martin

> (I had a mail related trouble, so if you receive this mail more than
> twice, forgive me.)
>
> > I think it is not so importnad in which format the docu is written but
> it
> > should be exported as pdf.
>
> If only pdf is given, it is difficult to review, modify, revise,
> be co-author. A pdf document should be generated from something other
> format. (make pdf, make html, make info...)
>
> We can review, modify, revise, be co-author with the "something other
> format." I heard about gtkdoc or docbook is in fashion. Of course,
> the moust important thing is how Joshua Facemyer is familiar with
> the "something other format."
>
> Masatake YAMATO
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

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Sorry again, I mistyped. I wanted to write glib-2.2 and not glib-1.2

> > Yes and no. We can use GIMP for preprocessing but most filters are not
> very
> > helpful. I plan a set of filters that are optimally adopted to the
> tracing
> > process and only those should be included.
>
> Ok. I think we need a kind of framework for preprocessing(e.g.
> preprocessing plugin).
>
> Anyway I'll prowl around Gimp. I need color reduction filter.
>
> > By the way feel free to use
> > glib-1.2
> I'd like to use glib-2.0. It works better on Windows than glib-1.2.
>
> Masatake
>
>
>
>
> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
>
>

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I've updated gettext related code in autotrace.

The problem is that de.po(German translation) from
Martin is not merged yet. building process is failed
when I added his de.po to po directory.

If someone helps me with inspecting de.po file,
please let Martin and I know.

The translation of --help will be done after
we introduce popt.

Regards
Masatake YAMATO