[Cc'ing to Bernhard Herzog, Sketch Maintainer]
Carol Spears (cspears@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:
> one thing i have often wondered is why sketch is not just imported into
> the gimp libraries. it already uses vectors and paths. why bother with
> building these things at home? especially if they are already written
> and working elsewhere?
One of the main reasons already has been mentioned. Sketch is mainly
implemented in Python and it is nontrivial to embed this into a
C-application. When doing this we would introduce a hard dependency on
python which is a point that is very unfortunate.
I use sketch for a lot of stuff and like it a lot. I did discuss the
opportunities for joining the efforts quite some time ago with Bernhard
Herzog (was it Linuxtag 2000?) but IIRC we came to the conclusion that
the different architectures are not easy to overcome.
Another thing that I have not yet figured out is: Where does the Scope
of GIMP stop, where should it leave room for other programs? Clearly
there are areas where Gimp could learn from a vector based program and
vice versa. But should Gimp try to become "the" tool for vector based
stuff? I don't know and it depends on my mood if I am opposed or in
favour of this option. But looking at the current state of the Gimp I
doubt that there are the resources available to head for e.g. full SVG
compliance.
Currently my main focus in Gimp development is: Replace the path tool
with a not sucking version and keep the implementation open for further
improvements. In the post 1.4 era it might be interesting to head for
vector-layers, but this needs time. Beyond this I don't have any plans.
Bye,
Simon
PS: (Just FYI - this issue came up at another part of the thread: The
current stable version of Sketch is based on TKinter, the development
version uses Python/GTK.)
--
Simon.Budig@xxxxxxxxxxx http://www.home.unix-ag.org/simon/
