From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,775f2cb8854e78a2 X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2003-11-28 02:15:20 PST From: "Rodrigo Garcia" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: <17eddf9f.0311270408.53a25eb1@posting.google.com> Subject: Re: SVG to PNG [was: Ada_Arrays Project] Date: Fri, 28 Nov 2003 11:14:54 +0100 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1158 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1165 NNTP-Posting-Host: lglpc31.epfl.ch Message-ID: <3fc72035$1@epflnews.epfl.ch> X-Trace: epflnews.epfl.ch 1070014517 128.178.76.8 (28 Nov 2003 11:15:17 +0200) Organization: EPFL Path: archiver1.google.com!news2.google.com!fu-berlin.de!news.mailgate.org!news-zh.switch.ch!switch.ch!epflnews.epfl.ch!not-for-mail Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:3017 Date: 2003-11-28T11:14:54+01:00 List-Id: You already have an open source product for this (in Java): Batik from the Apache Software Foundation. "Another possibility is to use Batik's modules to convert SVG to various formats, such as raster images (JPEG,PNG or Tiff)." More in: http://xml.apache.org/batik/index.html Rodrigo "Nick Roberts" wrote in message news:bq5r6r$1uos2e$1@ID-25716.news.uni-berlin.de... > M?rio Amado Alves wrote: > > > I'm entertaining the idea of a generic package Ada_Arrays and children > > where Ada_Arrays is like Ada.Strings except the element type is > > generic instead of Character. > > > > Anybody besides me foresees the great usefulness of Ada_Arrays? > > Anybody did it? > > I think it's the sort of thing that has been done before by lots of people, > generally not in a very organised or uniform way. I would guess the biggest > problem would be that people would be reluctant to pay for this sort of > thing; they would think "Crikey, I could just as easily write that myself," > even if they actually were wrong. > > > I'm considering doing it by program(med) transformation of existing > > source-code for Ada.Strings. My first studies indicate semantic > > analysis is required, so this might configure an ASIS application. > > I suggest that much of the interfaces of the Ada.Strings.*_Strings packages > are specific to the Character (component) type, and not sensibly applicable > to a generic array interface. I think this sort of package would be sailing > perilously close to the treacherous waters of the 'containers controversy'. > > > (I'm also interested in this project as a test case for open source > > software licensing. I'd like to release it under a "commercial open > > source" license like one of those endorsed by the Software Developers > > Cooperative (www.softdevelcoop.org). Specially if done by way of > > program transformation from the GPLed GNAT, the licensing of > > Ada_Arrays is a complex issue.) > > Allow me to suggest an alternative project, which I believe has a gap in > the market at the moment, and could be commercially attractive. > > I am not aware of any commercial program at the moment which can convert a > standard SVG source file into a suitable image format file (I suggest PNG > as the first target to aim at). There is the SVG viewer offered by Adobe, > but it has problems (bugs, deviation from the standard, certain standard > facilities not supported, slowness/inefficiency), and I'm not sure that it > can actually genarate image files anyway. There may be some high-end > products taht are very expensive, but if so that seems to leave a gap at > the lower-cost end. > > I think this would be a suitable product to be written in Ada, because it > would require little or no platform-specific code, and it would suit Ada's > strengths: efficiency and reliability. It would be impossible to > accommodate any interactive features, of course, and animation would lead > us to the complexities of animated GIFs or MNG files (but might be possible). > > I understand there are some Ada XML packages available (I'm not sure on > what terms), one of which could be used as a starting point for reading the > SVG source files. I believe there is an Ada PNG package (again I'm not sure > about its availablity). > > There are further possibilities with conversions between HTML, XSL-FO, > PS/EPS/PDF, and other presentation formats. > > > Anybody interested in collaborating? > > If you're interested in something like this, Mario, I might be interested > in collaborating. It would be important to plan the project carefully. > > -- > Nick Roberts >