GNUstep support for Cairo

[Hubert Chathi]

(This is NOT referring to the Cairo backend for gnustep-back.)

I don't know if anyone is interested, but I had been working on adding
support to Cairo to draw natively to a NSImage/NSView.  This might
possibly be helpful in getting SVG support (since librsvg can draw to a
Cairo surface), better PDF support (PopplerKit currently just draws to a
bitmap, which may make things ugly when scaling), potential Mozilla
porting (since Firefox 3 is supposedly Cairo-based), etc.

Unfortunately, I haven't had any time for quite a while to continue
working on it.  But if anyone wants to pick it up, it is available at:
  http://www.uhoreg.ca/programming/gnustep/

Most of the hard stuff (IMHO) has been done already, except for text
support (although I think that Cairo can handle text itself, if you
don't define a text drawing function --- still it would be better to use
native text rendering).  Other missing features are listed on the above
page.

If anyone wants to continue working on it, go ahead.  I can help out, by
giving tips, explaining what I've done, etc.  But I currently don't have
time to work on it further.

(Of course, it would be interesting when using this with the Cairo
backend, as then you would be drawing onto a Cairo surface, which draws
onto an NSView, which then draws onto a Cairo surface.)

-- 
Hubert Chathi - Email/Jabber: address@hidden - http://www.uhoreg.ca/
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