A feature for Inkscape that I've been working on for quite a while is getting the scripting extensions transferred over to using GLib calls, specifically Glib::spawn_async_with_pipes. The big advantage of this is that the script will be run in another process, so we can have live update of the screen while the script is running. It isn't perfect as we're not truly making Inkscape multi-threaded. But, I think it is a huge usability improvement.

To show off the feature I'm trying my first screencast. It's not perfect, a little jumpy, but I think it shows a little of what is going on. Take a look, I'll explain some below:

Unable to load and use the Cortado Java applet to play the OGG Thedora file. You can get it directly by clicking here. The most likely reason is that you don't have Java installed.

What I'm doing is drawing a calligraphic line and then calling the effect "Jitter Nodes." What you can see is how when I change the parameters in the dialog the canvas updates. What's hard to notice in the video is that I hit cancel on the dialog to show you can always go back, and then bring it up again and hit okay (just to prove that works too). There is still work to do on this feature, but I think it's showing a lot of promise.


posted Jul 7, 2007 | permanent link