'Greetings fellows of the internet.

My name is John Bargman, and until not too long ago I was, like most, a programming enthusiast with my hand in a few Open-Source pies.
However I'm now a programmer by profession working for a company.

Long story short I've been asked to develop an Inkscape extension to go alone side our existing extensions for Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw.
Something that I have to say I am overjoyed about, I've used Inkscape a fair few times in the past and I feel that this is evidence it's being taken seriously as software. I myself am a great believer in Open-Source.

Unfortunately I (simply put) do not have the time at the moment to do the traditional trawl though wiki-articles, forum posts, mailing-lists and IRC. I'm currently trying to fill huge holes in Illustrators API, while bugfixing the library used to handle vector data.

The short of it is this:
1. If there is an API reference / documentation on the Extension methodology of Inkscape, can you please point me to it?
2. Are extensions developed as dynamic libraries? if not can I link in our companies library to make use of it's functionality (a must as it happens)
3. If any of the inkscape developers aren't terribly busy I would love to have a chat sometime about the project. (I honestly never thought I'd get an opportunity to work with an open-source project of such regard, never mind in a situation like this.)

While for (those damned) legal reasons I can't say much (especially in a public forum), I can say that this development is related to deployment of software for hardware devices by a mainstream manufacturer.

P.s.
I won't lie, If I have to I will go digging for documentation myself. But I've a development schedule to keep, so I'm hoping you'll throw a few pieces of wisdom my way to speed things up. Please don't hold back about throwing your two-cents in.

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

I could only point you to the Inkscape wiki, which would start you on the long way around, that you hope to avoid (start on this page http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Inkscape). But I suspect ~suv will be able to give you some very helpful info. She's usually around daily or almost -- actually the most active developer who participates in this forum. There are several others though, who keep up regularly, but don't post often, but who might see your message and want to help.

Happy Trails!

I recently embarked on a similar journey, and wrote up some of the lessons of that journey on my blog: http://sugarpillstudios.com/wp/?p=142 . I hope that you find it helpful!

Thank you very much Brynn and LiquidAsh. I've managed to find some info on the wiki, and your tutorial blog has certainly helped me bend my mind into the right gear.
You mentioned A dev called Suv, is that her full username? As It may be an idea for me to PM her.

Hi,

http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Extension_subsystem and other info in the wiki indeed are a start, but I guess you've already been there.

With what information you were able to share it's difficult to provide concrete hints. However I'd like to point out that there already is a project called inkcut by Jairus Martin. It is developed as an Inkscape extension written in Python, but v2.0 that is currently in works will also work as a standalone application (on Windows as well).

I don't really know where you stand with licensing the extension you will be working on, but if you are allowed to release under GPL and Python isn't out of question, I'd recommend finding out if you can collaborate with Jairus.

Our preferred communication channel is the inkscape-devel@ mailing list. Very few technical discussions happen on this forum and the IRC.

BTW, ~suv isn't developer, even though her knowledge of specific topics as well as the big picture rivals that of some developers

Ah thank you for clarifying that.
I imagine licencing issues may be problematic indeed, but as most of the software exists as a licensed dynamic library I may be able to wrangle the chaps above me into allowing me to release the extension code (not that i'd be much use without the library mind.)

What I can say is that the software is a tad smarter than some previous variations, normally with these kinds of applications the cutting component is bundled into whatever plugin/extension is produced, we meanwhile have a more modular system whereby the actual cutting software is standalone and pulls in the data it needs via an inter-process library (with it's own little data-format).

The advantage is for any specific software (al'la Inkscape) I simply need to write a glorified export/import script that can handle throwing vector data at our application and retrieving the registration-markings etc from it.
The disadvantage is that while this total 'package' will be distributed freely by the manufacturer, both my company as developers and the larger company we are working for both have different legal ownership / licencing over the source / binaries / etc, so there's a fair few people to convince when it comes to the worth of providing even a little code to the people.

Well, if it was an open project, another idea I would throw in would be to go for a web app like Lasersaur folks did. Then you wouldn't even have to worry about recompiling the library under various platforms. Just feed it with a source file, tweak things for cutting in the browser et voila.

The licensing bit is somewhat scary. If the company you are doing this for is going to ship Inkscape + the extension, I'd recommend the company's lawyers to go though GPL and see if it's perfectly legal (if they haven't yet). Providing just the extension file should be fine.

No, please don't PM ~suv. She will certainly reply if she can help. Perhaps this is an area where she can't help. My own knowledge of the dev end of Inkscape is so poor that I don't really understand what the things are that you're asking about, lol. But I have to say I'm shocked to learn that she isn't a developer! Personally I would think with her work at Launchpad, that she has at least earned the title of "honorary" developer, lol! Certainly it should earn her inclusion in credits somewhere!

Good luck on your work!

Prokoudine, as far as installation goes, the package would contain only the ink-scape extension (alongside the adobe and corel plugins.) As such it's only the extension itself that need be worried about.
I think I'll continue reading up what google can give me for the next few days and then drop some messages to the mailing list, that said any insights are still much appreciated and welcomed.

I shan't PM suv, but should she happen upon this I'd greatly appreciate any insights ^_^