Date: Thu, 11 May 2000 00:59:14 +0100 From: Nik Clayton <nik@freebsd.org> To: jkoshy@FreeBSD.org Cc: Nik Clayton <nik@FreeBSD.ORG>, doc@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Including images in the documentation Message-ID: <20000511005914.A85566@catkin.nothing-going-on.org> In-Reply-To: <200005100942.CAA34333@freefall.freebsd.org>; from jkoshy@FreeBSD.org on Wed, May 10, 2000 at 02:42:51AM -0700 References: <20000509143555.A1692@kilt.nothing-going-on.org> <200005100942.CAA34333@freefall.freebsd.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
[ Just to be absolutely certain this message gets across -- I don't know
all the answers here. If I'm asking questions they're not rhetorical. ]
On Wed, May 10, 2000 at 02:42:51AM -0700, jkoshy@FreeBSD.org wrote:
> > vector images. Instead of storing EPS files in the repository we would
> > store the dia files, and generate the EPS from them at build time.
>
> I have two objections to `dia':
>
> Size: `dia' requires GTK which in turn pulls in other dependencies;
> ImageMagick is also big.
Yep. I fully agree with you here. I know what it's like to be behind
a slow link (33.6 modem until a week ago). This is exactly why I want
alternatives.
> I18N: How localized is `dia'? Will it serve the needs of the -doc
> translation teams?
Localized? Do you mean the application, or it's output?
> Instead:
>
> Why not have EPS as the ``base format'' from which other formats are
> generated as needed? Of the various choices, EPS seems to me today to
> scale the best across the available display technologies. Further, it
> is a fairly compact and, being plain text, works well with CVS.
> You can translate EPS into a number formats using ghostscript
> (including PNG).
How well are bitmaps covered in EPS? I'm assuming we're going to want
to be able to use bitmaps, such as screen grabs. I really don't know
how well suited EPS is as a format for bitmaps.
> Generating EPS:
>
> While visual tools like `dia' are a possibility, we also have:
>
> - MetaPost (already present in the teTeX distribution): a lightweight
> tool for drawing simple diagrams of the kind we are likely to need.
I've taken a cursory glance at MetaPost now (more specifically, mpman.ps
in the doc/ directory).
Hmm. I'm already getting flack from people for making the docs too
difficult to contribute to. That looks to be a little daunting for the
novice user. I'm aware that the more difficult we make this, the easier
it is for a potential contributor to think it's too much work, and not
bother.
Is there a visual editor for MetaPost?
> A related point:
>
> Most figures are going to need some text embedded in them. When
> translated, this text can change radically in size and may need to be
> repositioned in the figure. Boxes may need to be resized and/or
> moved around. In the interest of easing the translation teams' work
> it would be useful to describe pictures in a high-level way (e.g:-
> "connect this box to that one there with a wavy line") and have the
> build process automatically handle the details of positioning
> and sizing of the picture's components. This is possible today when
> using MetaPost or TeX.
Ditto with dia. By default, dia's output format is compressed. If you
tell it not to compress files ("File" -> "Preferences") then the save
format is a valid XML document, marked up in dia's own DTD. This means
you can edit with any old text editor, embed
<!-- $FreeBSD$ -->
at the top of each file, and so on.
> It would be even better to describe our figures in SGML :). Do you know
> of any DTDs being used to describe figures and diagrams?
See previous paragraph.
If you feel better about it, you can consider dia to be a graphical editor
for a document marked up in XML. If we can I'd be very happy if we can
get the dia-to-eps functionality in a separate tool without all the
additional dependencies (it's possible we can, my research hasn't gone
that far yet).
N
--
Internet connection, $19.95 a month. Computer, $799.95. Modem, $149.95.
Telephone line, $24.95 a month. Software, free. USENET transmission,
hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Thinking before posting, priceless.
Somethings in life you can't buy. For everything else, there's MasterCard.
-- Graham Reed, in the Scary Devil Monastery
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20000511005914.A85566>