Hi, Then we will need Cairo + SDL2 (that does not work for us) + Freetype2 (for fonts) + Graphite (glyphs shaping technology in order to use them within vector graphics engine) + cross platform OpenGL / Vulkan context/device provider for hardware acceleration + implement Filters for effects (blur, lights, color matrix filters, etc...).
Without all those technologies bloc WILL progress, from 80's to 00's. Still decades behind :) Cheers On Jan 26, 2017 20:40, "stepharong" <stephar...@free.fr> wrote: > I think that instead of investigating gtk (yet another library to bind and > carry around), > it would be smarter to have Sparta back-end using an accelerated Cairo + > pango. > Why? Because > - For example Cairo will not disappear in the future (here you > will tell me that it does not have all the full > features.... I think that Bloc should deliver Brick first and > focus on this because else it will stay a nice > experiment.) > - We do not have bench with an accelerated compiled version so no > idea if this is good enough. > - Cairo is about 1.5 mb vs 20Mb and it is packaged. > > I share the concerns of Esteban about the maintenance of such Mozz2d > bundling and he was pretty > clear with me, he will not maintain it nor take any responsibility about > pharo using it. > > So having a Cairo Sparta back-end would be a smart move. > Stef > > > > > > Hi, >> >> Thank you for the intensive set of issues you raised during the Bloc >> presentation. I think it is worthwhile addressing them more thoroughly, so >> let me start with the issue that seemed to have caused the most worries: >> Sparta & Moz2D. >> >> Please keep in mind that while I am involved to some extent in Bloc, the >> real credits for the current state go to Glenn and Alex. >> >> Moz2D (https://github.com/mozilla/moz2d, https://wiki.mozilla.org/Platf >> orm/GFX/Moz2D) offers an advanced backend and using it puts us on par >> with the rendering speed of a web browser, which is a significant added >> value over what we have now. >> >> However, as it was noted, it does come with a cost due to the fact that >> it is not available as standalone with only the features we are interested >> in. The vector graphics part is actually buildable out of the box. However, >> the text support needs to be extracted out of Moz2D, and this is where the >> patching scripts are used. The patches are there only for compilation >> purposes and not for features and they are applied automatically. You can >> see it here: >> https://github.com/syrel/Moz2D >> >> Alex updated recently the Moz2D version and it worked without problems. >> Of course, future changes in Moz2D might imply changes in this script as >> well, and this implies that we will need to maintain that script. And we >> could imagine applying these patches on the trunk of Moz2D to see if they >> work, and we can also imagine engaging with the Moz2D owners to see if we >> can find a middle ground. >> >> Now, let’s put this into perspective. We are currently using Athens and >> the Cairo backend. While Cairo is provided as a standalone library it has >> not seen significant advances since Mozzila shifted its focus towards >> Moz2D. So, sticking with it might not be an ideal strategy either. >> >> Furthermore, just like Athens, Sparta is an abstraction that allows us to >> switch the underlying backend should we need to. Until now we did not find >> a cross-platform backend that is as advanced and complete as Moz2D, but >> there is no reason to think that none other will appear in the future. Skia >> is an alternative but it is only a vector graphic engine without text >> support, so using it would imply to have another library for the text >> support. >> >> Sparta also comes with a reasonable set of tests that is aimed at testing >> the basic Moz2D functionality to make sure that the assumptions on top of >> which Sparta is built are correct. >> >> All in all, I think that the current situation is not ideal, but there is >> already enough engineering in place to actually make it work. And I >> definitely think that the potential it opens is rather significant. >> >> And, if more people look at the scripts, we might find even better and >> cheaper ways to express it. >> >> Cheers, >> Doru >> >> >> -- >> www.tudorgirba.com >> www.feenk.com >> >> "We cannot reach the flow of things unless we let go." >> >> >> >> >> >> > > -- > Using Opera's mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/ > >
