Xaralx progress!

[fjgaude]

well, something is in move...

If the port to Cairo will go well - we will loose some speed but - we will win the world

Gosh, say that again... the world, yes! All I really need now as an improvement is the ability to copy and paste text to the Linux clipboard. Then I'll no longer need anything from Windows. That day is coming. Maybe JLM will tackle such a task. There must be lots of code around, as most Linux apps do use the clipboard.

frank

[SorinN]

Other good news - from http://sk1.sourceforge.net/ - SK1 is a new graphic editor for vectors and the good point is that SK1 guys get done an "Universal CDR importer" and they work forward for an Universal Convertor "import filters: CDR, CMX, AI, CGM, WMF, XFIG, SVG, SK, SK1, AFF and export filters: AI, SVG, SK, SK1, CGM, WMF" ... then a lot of peoples wil leave MS OS.

Well the things goes on ..


P.S.
Anyway I am waiting for XaraXtreme Pro on Linux...

[Xhris]

According to Xara's speed charts, Cairo was severely bashed for speed. Why is time being spent porting to Cairo? That work is being done to improve the existing code is pleasing to hear.

[remi]

Why is time being spent porting to Cairo?

Because you don't understand the problems with the open source community and the closed source parts of Xara Xtreme for Linux. Read some threads in this forum about this...

Remi

[Xhris]

Because you don't understand the problems with the open source community and the closed source parts of Xara Xtreme for Linux. Read some threads in this forum about this...

Remi

Are there any particularly good ones you'd specifically recommend? Thanks.

[Odat]

In a nutshell, OpenSource developers (well, most of them) want all parts of the source code open, and don't want to use/deal with/work with anything that does not fit that model. In the case of Xara, the CDraw library that does all of the rendering has not been released as source, and most likely never will be.

Although Xara has stated that they're never going to revoke the license on CDraw which would stop anyone that was using XaraLX from being able to continue using it, a lot of people don't want to work on a project that relies so heavily on a chunk of code controlled by someone else.

As a result, the code was forked so that it could be modified to work using Cairo as the rendering engine instead of CDraw. Development can then move forward because there is a version of xaralx that is completely self sufficient from outside code.

[remi]

This thread is a good starting point to read something about the problems with the Xara Xtreme for Linux source code and the OpenSource community.

Regards,
Remi

[Xhris]

In a nutshell, OpenSource developers (well, most of them) want all parts of the source code open, and don't want to use/deal with/work with anything that does not fit that model. In the case of Xara, the CDraw library that does all of the rendering has not been released as source, and most likely never will be.

Although Xara has stated that they're never going to revoke the license on CDraw which would stop anyone that was using XaraLX from being able to continue using it, a lot of people don't want to work on a project that relies so heavily on a chunk of code controlled by someone else.

As a result, the code was forked so that it could be modified to work using Cairo as the rendering engine instead of CDraw. Development can then move forward because there is a version of xaralx that is completely self sufficient from outside code.

That line of thinking from the OS community is a great shame. Such distrust is costing them. Can Xara really not be trusted; do people really not empathise with the feeling Xara has toward their code?

It will be interesting to see just how slow Cairo is. It seems like a poor use of effort to go down that route to me. But at least someone is improving existing code. It's times like this I wish I had mainly the time, but also a bit more hardcore coding experience. (Although I'm not a fan of Linux having used it a lot recently, but that's a different story.)