Re: Presentation and interactive diagrams

[Lars Clausen <lrclause cs uiuc edu>]

On Mon, 11 Feb 2002, Matthieu Sozeau wrote:
> [10 Feb 2002 18:13:05 -0600] a écrit:
> 
>> > The only "problem" that I've found to do all the process is that Dia
>> > needs a X session to work, and I was wondering if it possible to use
>> > the command line export option without this need (I am not a
>> > programmer, so if I'm saying stupid things, excuse me). If it's
>> > possible to do the export process without any gtk-display, I think
>> > that Dia can be easily use to these kind of interactive diagrams.
>> 
>> There are fake X servers available, but running Dia without GTK would be
>> difficult at best.  For one thing, text widths are calculated by GDK
>> (though that can be done with FreeType now, but it asks X for font
>> information, too).  Hmmm... looks like I broke PNG export in CVS by
>> adding a dialog.  Gotta have a check for noninteractiveness.
>> 
>> -Lars
> 
> Once FreeType will ask the X Font Server only, there will be more
> chances. I don't know why it doesn't do it yet...gotta ask now. With dia,
> you must have your font path defined in XF86Config, but for mozilla (as
> an example), that's not needed to actually get your fonts working.

Some programs use various hacks to get fonts paths, such as hardcoding
typical font paths or looking for them during installation.  I'd rather not
have to resort to such.  

I'm thinking there are other difficulties in making a non-X version of
Dia.  Can't point at specifics right now, though.  The startup does some X
stuff per default, and it's uncertain how much GDK stuff depends on
gdk_init having been called.  If you want a non-X version in order to
reduce startup time, start by looking into not loading any sheets or
plugins you don't need.

-Lars

-- 
Lars Clausen (http://shasta.cs.uiuc.edu/~lrclause)| Hårdgrim of Numenor
"I do not agree with a word that you say, but I   |----------------------------
will defend to the death your right to say it."   | Where are we going, and
    --Evelyn Beatrice Hall paraphrasing Voltaire  | what's with the handbasket?