[PATCH 02/48] Added new icon build rule

[Juan Lang]

Hi Joel,

I'm piping up not because I can speak for Alexandre--I can't--but to
express that you're not the only one interested in seeing this work
merged.

> It is possible with a multipage SVG (which Inkscape doesn't support yet, and
> can't be rendered RSVG) and embedded bitmaps for the hand tweaked images
> (which are at beta stage AFAIK). That's bad news, but these obstacles can be
> overcome by me spending a lot of my time (which these days is in really
> short supply) writing scripts in Perl, but that would require me to use Perl
> (which I don't know and would have to learn)*, and could take several more
> months.

You could also ask for help.  I too am not a Perl hacker, but there
are some on list.

> It would also require a dependancy on some kind of command line image
> handling tool like ImageMagick or Python image stuff (which I'm sure you
> won't like) because RSVG only renders to 32-bit, but we need to output to
> 4-bit and 8-bit without screwing up these palette (which may be very hard).

ImageMagick, at least, is very commonly available.  In my personal
opinion, adding a dependency on it to build the icons doesn't seem
onerous.  We have stranger requirements elsewhere in the build.

> The end result would be 1 file rather than 9, but in a format which is
> harder even than ico for artists to work with given the state of todays
> tools.

Perhaps, but assuming a script to generate .icos from the SVG exists,
it seems that a mirror script to create the SVG from its source files
mightn't be too hard.  Given such a script, artists wouldn't need to
reinvent that particular wheel, and at some point the need for it
should disappear (assuming Inkscape implements support for multipage
SVGs.)

> * I do use python though - is there any in the project?

There isn't.

> Speaking personally: This project has already taken me over a year to get
> this far, and after all this painstaking work I'm really keen to get it out
> to the world, but I'm so short of time right now, and it feels like every
> time I try and submit, there are more of these never ending hoops to jump
> through. From my perspective I won't abandon this work that I've spent so
> much time on, but it's becoming this never ending nightmare of obstacles.
> I'm looking at the big picture and wondering; is turning a very minor mess
> of 9 files into 1 per icon really the best use of my time, when I could be
> productively contributing to areas of need within the FOSS world that will
> have a real effect on FOSS users.

We feel your pain ;-)  Think of it this way:  assuming you take the
time to do this right, the next contributor won't have as steep an
obstacle to deal with.  You're not just contributing artwork--which
are much appreciated, believe me--you're improving the workflow for
future artists.

Cheers,
--Juan