Hi Alex/Glenn, Yeah that's a fair point, I think this may be a textbook case of Freudian projection, so my apologies if those weren't your intentions Glenn.
The problem is, I don't have a great deal of experience in the Layout Engine and I really have no grounds to put a proposal together. I've put forward the projects that I know about and think are interesting. If you want to put a project proposal forward please do, if no one else steps forward as a mentor and an applicant takes an interest, I'll make the effort to learn the code. Mehdi On 5 March 2012 15:48, Alexios Giotis <[email protected]> wrote: > I don't think that Glenn's idea is that bad. FOP's open bugzilla issues are > not only bugs, they also show what are the areas that FOP needs to be > improved. If we start from the beginning, then > > | 1063|New|Nor|2001-03-21|fop does not handle large fo files > > is a real, very interesting issue and the solution is not to increase the > Java heap size. There are workarounds such as caching objects but a good > solution might be deeper in FOP's layout engine. What about checking or > implementing Donald Knuth's first-fit or best-fit algorithms ? In theory, it > would allow to free FO tree and layout manager objects after the end of every > page. > > There was a recent discussion about this, see > http://apache.markmail.org/message/3ejv4opwcceipfpl?q=list:org%2Eapache%2Exmlgraphics%2Efop-users+total+best+fit > > Of course there will be drawbacks, FOP is complex (more complex than it > should be in my opinion, cleanup / modularization would help) and this is not > a simple task. > > > Alex Giotis > > > On Mar 5, 2012, at 4:49 PM, mehdi houshmand wrote: > >> Haha, if only it were that simple... The projects have to be >> interesting and fulfilling and at least bordering on fun. They also >> have to be an opportunity to learn and encourage opensource >> development. There's little fun to be had fixing bugs hidden in the >> depths of FOPs fairly difficult to delve-in code base, also - probably >> more importantly - I can't imagine it would serve as encouragement. >> >> Mehdi >> >> On 5 March 2012 14:36, Glenn Adams <[email protected]> wrote: >>> I would suggest whittling down the fop bug list, starting from the >>> beginning. >>> >>> >>> On Mon, Mar 5, 2012 at 6:35 AM, mehdi houshmand <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>> Because of the overwhelming popularity of this idea, I've created a >>>> link on the Wiki >>>> (http://wiki.apache.org/xmlgraphics-fop/GoogleSummerOfCode2012) for >>>> the GSoC proposals. >>>> >>>> On a serious note, this is literally work for free. Google pays the >>>> bills and I'm happy to mentor any applicants and do the admin, all you >>>> have to do is provide ideas for projects. If you have a wish list or a >>>> list of TODOs that you think a newbie could do for a summer project (I >>>> do appreciate that's quite a big caveat), now's your opportunity. >>>> >>>> Mehdi >>>> >>>> On 1 March 2012 16:26, mehdi houshmand <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>> Hi Glenn, >>>>> >>>>> The GSoC doesn't relate directly to the ASF or FOP directly, however, >>>>> putting a few FOP projects as proposals would be a good way to get >>>>> some new interest into the project. I think it would be good for us as >>>>> we benefit from any work done, and it helps whomever does the work >>>>> learn the various skills that we as a community can impart upon them. >>>>> >>>>> I've included a link to the GSoC below, but if you do some research, >>>>> there's plenty of information out there. >>>>> >>>>> http://code.google.com/soc/ >>>>> >>>>> Mehdi >>>>> >>>>> On 1 March 2012 16:13, Glenn Adams <[email protected]> wrote: >>>>>> could you provide a link to the "Google Summer of Code Project"? how >>>>>> does it >>>>>> relate to ASF and FOP activities? >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> On Thu, Mar 1, 2012 at 3:50 AM, mehdi houshmand <[email protected]> >>>>>> wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Hi, >>>>>>> >>>>>>> We're thinking of submitting a proposal or two to the Google Summer of >>>>>>> Code project and wanted to get some input from the community on ideas. >>>>>>> Once we've got a few proposals I'll create a wiki page and put all the >>>>>>> ideas on there, but for now I just wanted to gauge interest. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> In terms of mentoring, I'm happy to be a mentor and I've registered as >>>>>>> one and if any other committers fancy the job, do register, the more >>>>>>> the merrier. The deadline is 9th March, so that doesn't give us long >>>>>>> to bounce around ideas, but here are a few I was thinking: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> - There have been recent discussions between Jeremias, myself and >>>>>>> others about extracting the Fonts packages into their own library. I >>>>>>> think this would be a great idea for a project because essentially it >>>>>>> only involves a few, well defined specifications (TTF, Type1 etc) and >>>>>>> doesn't expose the person to too much complexity. The way I'd suggest >>>>>>> this to be done, is by re-writing rather than porting, that way it >>>>>>> gives the person much more flexibility and also the current code would >>>>>>> give them good tips and tricks on how to deal with parsing fonts. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> - TTF in AFP. I know we still have the TrueTypeInPostScript branch >>>>>>> flying around, and however much I'd like to fob that onto someone >>>>>>> else, I don't think it's fair to do so. I have no idea how long this >>>>>>> project would take, but I think FOP could really benefit from it. >>>>>>> Currently we're forcing users to use AFP fonts for AFP documents, a >>>>>>> lot of which are archaic and use EBCDIC, for those of you who haven't >>>>>>> been exposed to EBCDIC, count yourself lucky. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> There may be something to do with PCL?? I'm not at all familiar with >>>>>>> the format, but I do remember discussions about upgrading to a newer >>>>>>> PCL standard? I'd be happy to acquaint myself with the format if >>>>>>> there's interest in the idea. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Hopefully we can get a proposal together in time. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Mehdi >>>>>> >>>>>> >>> >>> >
