Extension format question

[fdesar]

Hello,

I don't know if it is the right place to ask this type of question : I've been wandering quite a long time on Internet and didn't really found the right place to ask about this.

I've written an extension (in Perl5: yes, I'm of the old school and I really hate Python, sorry) which works quite well, aimed to help orgami designers (as I am) to find somehow complex math fold solutions (at least painful to hard to find with plain Inkscape tools) for drawing diagrams (for those who known about origami, it simply and quickly solves huzita 5&6 axioms drawing).

It is based for now on two files to integrate in the extension (user or system) directory and to have Perl and its X11 modules installed (not a real problem for anyone, available on all POSIX compliant platforms and probably quite easily on MS Windows(r) too, using the fully stable free software Strawberry Perl or the not-so-free software from Active Perl).

Two questions :

- I'd like one day to publicly publish it as free software (under GPL license) officially : where and how should I do that?
- As I'm french, I've worked on it's internationalization, both for the .inx file an the script internal messages and I already get the .po/mo files for english (default) and french for both of them and wonder how to submit them too for further integration in (or beside) the inkscape.mo main files.

Any answer, even to point me to the right place to ask, are welcome.

Many thanks to all of you,

François

[Moini]

1. "- I'd like one day to publicly publish it as free software (under GPL license) officially : where and how should I do that?"

Use some sort of version control website, with the option to open bug reports. Like Gitlab, some other public instance of gitlab, Bitbucket, or even Github or sourceforge.
Then visit https://inkscape.org/en/develop/extensions/ to learn how to give your extension a bit more public visibility by posting it to the inkscape.org website.

2. As far as I know, there is no po/mo file integration for third-party extensions for Inkscape yet. They are just ignored.

[fdesar]

Thank for the answer and for the links !

I'll soon open an account on GitHub, I think...


Too bad that extensions cannot be cleanly internationalized : I'm french and this extension concerns really a large international public, quite limited, sure, but *really* international (American, English, Spanish, Portuguese, germane, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese,Russian, is a minimum)...

So I'll probably have to distribute patched versions of various inkscape.po files, at least for french which I made for me and works quite well, but I don't like this idea too much...

I will still think about that and see what I can do with the international origami folders to build up the corresponding po files both for Inkscape and the extension.

Regards,

F.

[Moini]

Others have provided separate versions of the extension per language.
If you auto-generate those (as a Perl person, you'll know how to do that ;-) ), you could make it work without too much hassle for yourself, until, at some point, Inkscape will provide that feature.

[Moini]

(I haven't seen anyone autogenerate those yet)

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

The Inkscape community is quite international as well, and Inkscape is already translated to several if not many languages.  But I didn't realize that Inkscape extensions aren't translated along with the rest of the program.  If Fracois' extension was written such that it could be packed with Inkscape, would it then be translated?  I don't know what's needed for an extension to be packed with Inkscape, but if it was, I'm just curious.

I don't understand much about the technical side of Inkscape, what makes it work, and all that.  Well, I don't understand the technical side of any software.  Anyway, when you said

It is based for now on two files to integrate in the extension (user or system) directory and to have Perl and its X11 modules installed (not a real problem for anyone, available on all POSIX compliant platforms and probably quite easily on MS Windows(r) too, using the fully stable free software Strawberry Perl or the not-so-free software from Active Perl).

does that mean the extension will work on Linux, Mac and probably Windows?

Is your extension suitable for newbies to origami?  It sounds like it might be for making more advanced designs.  I don't know what "huzita 5&6 axioms" is but it sounds advanced! 

You're welcome to share a link to your origami website, if you have one.  Or if you have tutorials for using Inkscape with origami, I'd love to add them to our lists of tutorials.  Also I look forward to adding your extension to our list of 3rd party extensions!  Please be sure and let us know when it's released?

Fyi, Inkscape developers rarely visit forums.  So if you need to get in touch with them, the mailing list is the best place.  But there's also an IRC channel, in case you might not want to subscribe.  Info on this page:  https://inkscape.org/community/ 

[Moini]

Yes, extensions that come with Inkscape are translated.