[slightly OT] Re: [Clipart] Comma-separated keywords in metadata

[Alan Horkan]

On Sun, 18 Jul 2004, Jonadab the Unsightly One wrote:

> Date: Sun, 18 Jul 2004 16:52:00 -0400
> From: Jonadab the Unsightly One <jonadab at bright.net>
> To: clipart at freedesktop.org
> Subject: Re: [Clipart] Comma-separated keywords in metadata
>
> Bryce Harrington <bryce at bryceharrington.com> writes:
>
> > In Inkscape we implemented a jar-based format for collections of svg
> > documents.  Inkview can open and view these types of files.  It uses
> > .jar or .sxw as the file extension name.  Someone had suggested
> > .inkjar but that got way too many rolled eyes.  ;-)
>
> Is this format suitable for our purposes?  Could we just re-use it?
>
> And isn't a jar just a special kind of zip anyway?  (I know sxw is.)

JAR (java archive) is a zip file with a manifest (last time I made one
the manifest was not XML but this may have changed it has been years).

A lot of the OpenOffice documentation describes SXW as a JAR, not
surprising it being from Sun Microsystems but it has an XML manifest.

> > I'm not a big fan of those .xvpics subdirs that tend to show up
> > everywhere...  The other approach would be better.
>
> The thumbnails spec says one .thumbnails directory in one place.
> We'll have to adapt it to use a directory inside the package, though.

[the slightly offtopic bit...]

The subdirs everywhere can be a useful approach, it allows you to use up
the space where it is available rather than having to keep all the
thumbnails in one place (ie i dont want to use up all the space in my
home partition on thumbnails of files on a data partition).
A mix of both systems is required, fall back to the central .thumbnails
directory to deal with read only partitions.
It is not particularly difficult to say delete all the .thumbnail
directories in a given location and its subdiretories but if you are
short space clearing them out from the central .thumbnails file can be
awkward.

> [1] At least, I'm not; my current system is Linux, but I refuse to be
>     tied down by any platform-specific applications or file formats; I

Giving users the choice shouldn't exclude platform choice.  I dont want to
be locked in to just Linux either.  I prefer cross platform software too,
it increases the survival chances of software almost as much as having the
source code does (sometimes even more so, as no one has the time and
expertise or resources to maintain all their favourite software even if
they have the source).  I always hope that I can continue using the
software I have invested in for a long time.

- Alan H.