[scribus-dev] Tables as Summer of Code project

[Elvis Stansvik]

2011/3/6 Craig Bradney <cbradney at scribus.info>:
>
>> So I have a few questions:
>>
>> 1) Am I right in that a table in Scribus would be a new PageItem?
>
> Yes, adding new types of items has become much easier in the last couple
> of years (still within the 1.5.0 branch though, time passes slowly these
> days)

Well that's good. Reading the code, I see PageItems are not
responsible for drawing themselves, but drawn in ScPageOutput,
correct?

>
>> 2) Would tables leverage Scribus' existing layout mechanisms by having
>> each cell in the table be (or contain) a PageItem_TextFrame?
>
> Yes, however the text side is somewhat separated from the TextFrame
> class, given there are text storage and layout classes.

Right, I found the StoryText class. But layout, isn't
PageItem_TextFrame::layout() all of it? (that's one massive function
btw!)

>
>
>> 3) What about the ideas at [2], are they relevant?
>
> This seems to introduce a lot of unneeded extras or things that could be
> done afterwards.

Alright.

>
>> 4) Is there any "birdseye" developer documentation of how Scribus does
>> its layout, from loading to final glyph? Classes involved, patterns
>> used et.c.? If not, is this something that any of the core devs would
>> be willing to jot down off the top of their head? Wouldn't have to be
>> anything ambitious, just some notes. It would really help as a guide
>> when reading the source code.
>
> Nope... unfortunately not. IRC works, emails work.. and the wiki works.
> The more people collaborate via the wiki, the more gets documented, but
> what exists now is very little.

I see, well I guess I'll just bug you guys when there's something I
need to know then.

>
> http://docs.scribus.net/devel/ is autogenerated from the classes

Yep, I found that. Also generated a local copy.

>
>> 5) Are there any refactorings, big or small, that needs to be done in
>> order to accommodate tables support? In my KWord project I was able to
>> do my work in a plugin, plus some reasonably small and isolated
>> changes to core layout code. What's the situation in Scribus?
>
> Per the above, new page item types are easier to add so while not a
> plugin, it would be quite well isolated for the basics.

Good.

>
>> I realize now that this mail sounds awfully negative :) But don't
>> worry, it's just me trying to be down to earth, as I know it's
>> important to iron these things out beforehand. Especially important is
>> to iron out what will be the scope of the project.
>
> Negative is not worth talking about.. realistic is. Reality will also be
> more beneficial for a GSoC application.

For sure. I read you had problems with students dropping out back in 2009 :(

>
> Another thing.. if GSoC would not work out this year, would you be
> interested in this via alternative sponsorship?

I would. Though depending on the amount of sponsorship available I
might have to get some kind of small additional summer job as well, to
cover rent and living costs.

>
> Also, per my msg on IRC, we have Jain Basil who was working on something
> towards tables, but given nothing public has come of that for various
> reasons on his part, however you should contact him and see where things
> are at on his side. He might have a lot of design to lean on or take
> over from, or be willing to share. Wasting work and stepping on toes is
> not something we encourage.

Right, I will. Is he on IRC? Guess he's on this list? (Jain; reply
here, or I'll just e-mail you directly).

>
> Thanks very much for contacting us

No problem, I remember you guys as a nice gang, and it's a fine piece
of software.

Elvis

>
> Craig
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> scribus-dev mailing list
> scribus-dev at lists.scribus.net
> http://lists.scribus.net/mailman/listinfo/scribus-dev
>
>