GSoC 2013 Ideas

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Revision as of 11:19, 4 January 2013 by JLuc (talk | contribs)
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Ideas for GSOC 2013 :

  • Compliance -- turn the compiler up to all warnings are bugs. Make all warnings go away. In C++ every "warning" means "it will not work on a class of popular systems, or will work but give bad data". Fix them.
  • generally make it easier for somebody to jump in quickly to try out stuff on your software, either by removing the the obstacles : the unfriendly build issues, write some simple demos/guides (but GSOC cannot cover documentation).
  • related to 'make it easier to understand code and to code' :
    • find duplicates of low level code for common needs, create higher level function and use them to replace low level code wherever it is possible
    • create a python API for the scripter2 on top of each of these higher level function
  • "export to true web enabled PDF" option, that is create lightweight PDFs.
    • As for text reduction, scribus uses to save each glyph position. the "web enabled PDF" should not do this.
    • As for images, check out this page: Image_DPI_and_Scaling,_and_Resultant_File_Sizes, which gives a fair amount of data on which factors reduce PDF size, as far as images are concerned. Someone might find a way to use this information to make for some simpler process – there are too many settings right now I think.
  • Let Scribus only update the display/layout of the selected page(s) instead of the whole document when changes have been made, even if those changes affect other parts of a document. This will improve performance with large documents.
  • More and better preview options, for example:
    • Font preview in all font-related dialogs.
    • Speed up Scribus's performance by displaying grey lines instead of rendering text when the zoom factor is below a certain threshold.
  • Implement a tool to easily play with, set and save settings for Type Colour.
  • RTF import and export (export for Story Editor only), perhaps using an external library.
  • Improve XPress Tag and InDesign/InCopy Snippet import and add XPress Tag as well ID/IC Snippet export.
  • Implement Xtag import and export.
  • Implement XML/SLA source code editor (à la Inkscape or InDesign).
  • Add more scripting languages (JavaScript, Ruby ...) to Scripter2.
  • Create a basic MS Publisher importer using libmspub.
  • Implement XPS export.
  • Create better import of CorelDraw files using libcdr.
  • Create a MS Visio importer using libvisio.
  • Create an importer for special pattern formats (AI, EPS, PAT (Photoshop), SOH, SOB).
  • Rewrite the Style Manager.
  • Rewrite the Text Filter so it reflects Scribus's current text formatting capabilities.
  • Improve the tables tool.
  • Improve ODT and SXW import to reflect Scribus's new features like foot-/endnotes etc.
  • Improve and update the ODG and SXD import.
  • Enable style creation from text selection (similar to master page creation from existing page).
  • Improve the handling of Layers (e.g., implement a feature to select layers whose items can be edited via checkboxes).