[cairo] pycairo missing functions

[Carl Worth]

On Tue, 02 Nov 2004 11:04:44 +0800, Steve Chaplin wrote:
> The two set_target_*() routines had problems - they didn't give python
> access to the file object to flush or close it, so I've updated them and
> attach a patch.

Thanks, committed.

> Also attached is pycairo PNG example and a PS example.

Thanks again! Also committed.

> Another format I would like to use is SVG, I was expecting there to be a
> "cairo_set_target_svg()" function but did not find one. I know libsvg
> can parse SVG files and libsvg-cairo can render SVG, but can they write
> SVG files?

We don't yet have a path for outputting SVG files. As is, libsvg could
easily be made to spit out SVG directly, but it wouldn't be interesting
as it only gets input from SVG and doesn't yet provide means for
modifying it, (though that may change in the future).

As for an SVG backend for cairo, I've often thought it would be
interesting to have, but it doesn't exist yet. One issue is that the
current backend interface is lower-level than what you would really want
for SVG output. So, we may end up wanting to create a separate backend
interface that hooks in much closer to the cairo API.

When I suggested something like on the last teleconference, Owen said he
thinks that functionality should just be left to applications, but I
don't recall the rationale.

-Carl