On Thursday 05 July 2007 03:46:13 pm John Hunter wrote: > On 7/5/07, Michael Droettboom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Do you agree that it is still an open question whether it's better to > > spend time improving the matplotib PS backend, or to fix (if possible) > > the issues with matplotlib's Cairo integration? It does ultimately come > > down to a tradeoff: an additional dependency vs. extra maintenance > > The postscript backend as it stands is in good shape, and is full > featured (Darren can tell you how much work he has put into supporting > and enhancing the latex support). The last major issue with it is the > font size issue, and with your help a solution is on the horizon. So > it is definitely a good use of time to fix this last bit. It doesn't > sound like your "option 2" is a ton of work, but correct me if I'm > wrong.
It was a fair amount of work figuring out how to support latex. Jouni started work on a dvi parser, see dviread.py in matplotlib/lib/matplotlib, which could greatly simplify the gymnastics we currently use to support latex in ps output. If dviread were to be further developed, latex could also be used in conjunction with the pdf backend (Jouni's reason for starting dviread), the svg backend, and I guess it would work with cairo as well. But making dviread robust will probably take more work than options 1 or 2, so it is probably best to pursue one of those options for now. > While I would love to see cairo become a full featured backend, and > for there to be additional GUI support like tkcairo, wxcairo, etc, we > are a lot farther from that goal than we are to getting the font sizes > down in the existing postscript backend. And I like the fact the mpl > is completely BSD-ish -- relying on a core component which is LGPL > would be a step back in my book, though having it as an option would > be great. Why can't we all just get along? > Do you mean mathtext or usetex? - The former is mpl's own math layout > using the cm*.ttf files, and should work like any other text in the > file. The latter uses tex and dvipng rasters (at least in agg), but I > don't think it is supported in cairo. So I am not sure where these > rasters are coming from, unless cairo is converting all text to > rasters. I think he is right, gtkcairo converts mathtext to rasters. usetex is not support in gtkcairo. Darren ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ Matplotlib-devel mailing list Matplotlib-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/matplotlib-devel
