SoC2007 ideas: Difference between revisions

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==LiveCD==
==LiveCD==
[[Live DTP CD|Live DTP CD or DVD]] – this draft/project is 2 years old and  should be reviewed first, but there is definitely a need for such a solution.
[[Live DTP CD|Live DTP CD or DVD]] – this draft/project is 2 years old and  should be reviewed first, but there is definitely a need for such a solution.
=== Text frame usability enhancement ===
Improve on-page text editing usability and performance (ringerc).
=== Enhance inline objects ===
Enhance inline objects (ringerc).
=== Merge Field Support ===
Implement true "merge" style field support / variable text /conditional text a-la FrameMaker (ringerc).


== Tales from the Crypt, a.k.a. Ideas from the Bug Tracker ==
== Tales from the Crypt, a.k.a. Ideas from the Bug Tracker ==

Revision as of 19:16, 16 March 2007

Google Summer of Code 2007 projects ideas

Here is a list of projects that could be done during Google Summer of Code 2007.

Scribus Team Ideas

Imposition

Write an imposition (booklet printing) plugin for Scribus.

Background Information

Text merge

Write a text merge plugin for Scribus. This would allow to read data records from a table and use it for text content or filenames for image frames. It could also provide a mode to print labels etc.

There is a mail merge RFE. One of Czech student is working on it. It looks like it will turn into common usable text merge from various data sources (CSV, XML, db...) --Subik 13:05, 7 March 2007 (CET)

End-to-end publishing solution

This is a meta-project that could be distilled into one or more workable GSoC projects.

End-to-end publishing solution

LiveCD

Live DTP CD or DVD – this draft/project is 2 years old and should be reviewed first, but there is definitely a need for such a solution.

Text frame usability enhancement

Improve on-page text editing usability and performance (ringerc).

Enhance inline objects

Enhance inline objects (ringerc).

Merge Field Support

Implement true "merge" style field support / variable text /conditional text a-la FrameMaker (ringerc).


Tales from the Crypt, a.k.a. Ideas from the Bug Tracker

XML Editor

It could be practical to have an on/off toggle in the text editor between Wysiwyg and some kind of XML. One click you have the classical way to type text, Another one, formating disappear, XML tags appear like this :

-------------------------------------- <font name="Bistream Vera Sans MS" size="10"> blah blah blahalahb blah blah </font> <justify>blih blih blih blah blah</justify> <style name="paragraph"> ploplpoplpoplploplpo frudubulubruih :) </style> --------------------------------------

notice the difference between the (ugly) formating tags at the beginning, and the descriptive style tags, wich then define the look of the text.

The ability to expose the internal XML for text objects might also be rather interesting for the Python interface. (ringerc)

The approaches of Inkscape and InDesign are worth looking at. (christoph_s)

Inkscape's re-architecturing effort: Subsystem Architecture

OpenOffice import/export extension for the Story Editor

Start with the OO text import plugin and work out a plugin that would export valid Open Document Format (ODF) xml for re-import into OpenOffice.

Scribus-specific elements and attributes would need to be stripped off, of course.

Multiple Search and Replace

Allow users to do multiple search/replace action at once in a document. For each string we’d be able to access all settings available right now for just one text string. This will add computing power to Scribus, from the UI.

Individual snappable baseline grid lines

Baseline Grid Enhancements - Discussion page.

Snap guides to locked objects

Instead of letting objects snap to guides, sometimes the reverse is needed, namely letting guides snap to (locked) objects. It would be nice to have this, e.g. by dragging guides while pressing the shift key. The reverse mode should be visible in the cursor (other colour or something similar).

Latex Text Frames

I think using LaTeX for setting text (including math, footnotes, bibliography and indices) and Scribus for the layout would make a very good match. But that means you want Scribus to control the position, size and shape of the textframes, and having access to Scribus's colors and fonts wouldn't be bad, either.

I think it would be better to make it easy to use the same fonts for LaTeX frames and non-LaTeX frames. AFAIK font installation was/is a bigger issue in LaTeX than it ever were in Scribus. If there is a way to automate it, we should take it.

What I thought of was that Scribus should only provide an interface to LaTeX in the first step: Write LaTeX commands in the SE and let LaTeX do the rendering. At this stage, Scribus style options etc. aren't involved at all.

Still, LaTeX needs to know the pagesize; or you have to use preview.sty to get pages cropped to the bounding box.


Hm, I guess you could do similar thinks with my solution. You'd just have a separate set of text options for LaTeX. If you take a look at fntguide.dvi from the LaTeX docs you'll understand why. There might be some Scribus options which could be translated to LaTeX parameters, but I doubt there will ever be a 1:1 correspondence. I'd be happy if I manage to find a way to translate Scribus' fonts into appropiate LaTeX font load commands and find a suitable math font for each...

Auto-change quotes based on language settings

I'm looking for a way to automatically change quotes (", ') to typographical quotes (unicode 201c/201e etc.). Would be great if I could use the text filters to do something like: "replace every other occurence of " with unicode 201e, the rest with 201c"

Add spellchecking to Story Editor

Using one of the standard libraries existing on Linux (aspell, ispell, MySpell), or possibly even use Enchant [1]

Automatic Widow/Orphan Control

Add a Clone tool as in Inkscape

If this matched the featureset of Inkscape's clone tools, this would match the features requested in bugs 922*, 923 and 924, and as an extra comment in bug 344.

PDF Export enhancement for PDF embedding

Enhance PDF exporter to enabled embedding PDF within PDF for PDF 1.4+ per roadmap

Implement JDF support

JDF seems to be the coming standard for job tickets. It may be patent encumbered in the US and countries with so-called FTAs with the US, but scribus should definitely offer the possibility to use the format somehow to be considered a "serious" application.

In particular, Quark has added support for using JDF as a source of preflight information. It's something I've wondered about for a while, and ended up talking to some of the MS Publisher folks about too. It turns out they're not interested in in-app preflight (despite how much easer it'd make life for publishing shops that have to take .pub jobs from users who can't read a job spec to save their lives).

Rich Text Format import plugin

Implement an RTF importer based on the existing plugins for other formats.

WordPerfect Format import plugin

Implement a WordPerfect importer ased on the existing plugins for other formats.

Blue Sky Ideas

Present the title of your idea here and link to the wiki page where you elaborate on it.

twexter

twext texts provide comprehensible input for language learners, and can integrate will many softwares (including MediaWiki and/or the wiki for the $100 laptop ).. why not a twexter plugin for Scribus?