[Clipart] Is anyone working on categorizing the existing images?

[Bryce Harrington]

On Wed, 9 Jun 2004, Bruno Coudoin wrote:
> > > One weakness of the database, as you propose here, is that you cannot 
> > > install it easily and distribute it with a GNU/Linux distrib.
> > 
> > Oh?  Why not?
> > 
> cliparts are usefull for desktop users and for desktop users, as far as
> I know, distribs do not install databases (like mysql) with the desktop
> profile and that makes sense.

Oh, hmm, perhaps there was a miscommunication.  The way I had been
thinking was that the database would exist on the openclipart site only,
not on the user's system.

I assume we would "flatten" the information for any packages we provide
to the user, such that no database in particular is required.

> If you do a package with your cliparts, you will need to detect which
> database is on the system, or force the use of one, install the package
> and fill up the database. I am not aware of any package that does this
> automaticaly, even if it's technically possible, it's rather complex and
> error prone. Usually, there is a post step in the installed tool to
> create the table and fill up the initial content.

Oh heck no, we don't want to go there.  Keep It Simple.  :-)

The database would simply be for achieving some semblance of sanity on
*our* end.  (Of course, we could also provide dumps of the database for
those users who *do* want it for some reason...)

> Then, later on, there is still issues. In my application X, how will it
> knows it can find cliparts in this database ?
> 
> You see, installing a bunch of XML files in a predefined directory is
> much much easier.

Yes, that's what I assume we'd be doing on the user's side of things.

Note that in particular, since SVG *is* XML, we can embed all the
metadata info *into* the SVG image itself.  This is one of the several
reasons we like using SVG as the native format.

What I figure we can do for users not conversant in SVG is provide
scripts for bulk-converting to other formats like PNG, etc. that they
can run on their system after downloading it.  This saves us the storage
space and simplifies administration of packaging.

Bryce