Re: Cairo

[David Kastrup]

Jean Abou Samra <jean@abou-samra.fr> writes:

> Hi Knut et al,
>
>> For those who are interested: here is an updated version of my
>> cairo patch.
>
> I'm glad you're working on this — and seemingly
> making fast progress!
>
>>>> If we kick out ghostscript the \postscript markup will die a lonely
>>>> death.
>>> I'd retain the PostScript backend for special purposes.
>> +1
>
> Sorry, I don't understand. Since Cairo supports PS
> generation, why wouldn't we be better off using
> that? I thought PS was mostly provided "because it
> could be" since our internal workflow was generating
> PDF from it.
>
> About including images: I don't fully grasp the
> context, but I want to note that from the user point
> of view, support for including PNG images would
> be very desirable.

One would need to check how Cairo supports bitmaps and/or other
inclusion.  If all else fails, one could try using something like sam2p
for generating small-size embedded PS/PDF.

> One thing that will have to be sorted out is
> distributing with the new dependency on Cairo.
> I think GUB has a spec for it, did you test it?
> How is this going to fare in Jonas' experimental
> scripts?

Long-term project: convert a bunch of stencil stuff to direct Cairo data
structures.  That would move us towards more interactive LilyPond usage
patterns including integration into things like Frescobaldi's previewer.

-- 
David Kastrup