Re: GOffice components

[Jean Bréfort <jean brefort normalesup org>]

Le mardi 09 mai 2006 �1:37 +0200, Robert Staudinger a �it :
> Hi Jean,
> 
> On 3/12/06, Jean Br�rt <jean brefort normalesup org> wrote:
> [...]
> > Here is the relevant part of the API (still very unstable):
> >
> > * retrieving general information:
> >
> >
> > GSList *go_components_get_mime_types (void);
> >
> > Gets the list of mime types supported by at least one plugin
> >
> >
> > GOMimePriority go_components_get_priority (char const *mime_type);
> >
> > Gets the level of support. The returned value is one of the following:
> > GO_MIME_PRIORITY_INVALID: an error occurred (this should never happen)
> > GO_MIME_PRIORITY_DISPLAY: the component can just display the contents.
> > GO_MIME_PRIORITY_PRINT: the component can display and print the
> > contents.
> > GO_MIME_PRIORITY_PARTIAL: there is some editing capacity, but not all
> > features are supported.
> > GO_MIME_PRIORITY_FULL: full editing support.
> > GO_MIME_PRIORITY_NATIVE: the same as above, but the plugin is provided
> > by the application which is associated with the mime type.
> [...]
> 
> A minor nitpick of course, but is _PRINT really a subset of _PARTIAL
> and a superset of _DISPLAY, especially for non-native apps? Sure, the
> (gtk/gnome) world is moving towards cairo and the gtk printing
> support, hmm.

With _PRINT, you cannot edit or create a new embedded object. PARTIAL
has some support for that.

> What do you think about a more general "export capabilities" approach,
> since printing in my limited view of things is essentially postscript
> export (on the app side, the rest should be handeled by the platform).
> E.g. something along the lines of:
> GList *mime_list = go_component_get_export_mimetypes (GOComponent*);
> This would let apps use components for converting files.

I changed things somewhat yesterday, and added a new draw_cairo
function. I feel it will replace draw, print, and export_to_svg in the
(not so far) future.
It will be easy to port the existing components to use that, since the
drgeo and gnumeric ones are already displayed using cairo and I plan to
move gchempaint to cairo.
For more general conversions, it is of course possible to add a new
function if it appears a necessity.

> Not sure if that makes much sense, of course the above two suggestions
> are not mutually exclusive.
> 

Cheers,
Jean