Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Graphics

Lightweight C++ Library For SVG On Windows? 130

redblue writes "I would like to display vector graphics in my Windows C++ programs with minimal system requirements. Some of the possibilities are: 1. Enhanced Metafile Format format/EMF+, 2. Flash/SWG, 3. Silverlight/XAML, 4. SVG. The non-open proprietary nature of #2 & #3 make them unattractive. Since EMF+ is not amenable to easy editing, it leaves SVG as the only format worth pursuing. The trouble is that the major vendors have a lock on the market with their proprietary formats; leaving SVG high and dry with no easy native OS support. At least not on Windows. From what I could learn on the intertubes, Cairo is the best, if not only, reasonable system that may enable compiled SVG support. Unfortunately, AFAIK, it comes with a price tag of >2MB overhead and the C++ bindings are not straightforward." Read on for the rest of redblue's question; can you improve on his home-brewed solution?

Comment Re:Problem with the galactic positioning system (Score 1) 146

That the pulsars move relative to each other (and us) is true - but this is an extremely minor point. The pulsars all have very large masses, which means it would take something HUGE to alter their trajectory significantly. Until that happens, that large mass translates to very predictable movement.

The periodicity of the pulsar is more problematic. With a sudden introduction of mass, or a sudden readjustment in the matter of the pulsar, the frequency can abruptly change. And yet, this isn't even so much of an issue. The pulsars will be monitored from some location (Earth or otherwise), and changes to their behaviour can be uploaded to the Galactic Positioning System receivers shortly after the change is observed. The receivers might compute positions incorrectly in the interim, but more likely "dead reckoning", combined with other pulsar observations could be used to determine the erroneous input, and ignore it until the update.

A more serious "flaw" is that the pulsar emissions are not (at first blush) "marked" with an emission time. One pulse looks more or less like the next. If a pulse occurs once-a-second, this translates to 300,000 km between pulse fronts. If your positioning space exceeds this length, you might end up with ambiguity in your resulting position calculation. The other 3 pulsars will provide constraints, making certain "single pulse off-by-one" errors easily discarded. But as your location space grows, it becomes more than possible for multiple location solutions to a given set of pulse-front timings. With Earth's GPS system, each satellite's transmission is coded with both a satellite identifier and timing information, making this type of error impossible.

Comment Re:What a tool... (Score 1) 457

There are already laws which outlaw "assault", which is the threat of force. This pretty much would cover most kinds of bullying (ignoring, say, name calling). Cyberbullying would fall under this, and would be fairly easier to prove, since you have documented evidence of what was written -- it isn't heresay. Proving the person behind what was written was someone in particular, and that someone hadn't hijacked their account, would be the hard part. But "assault" is already illegal. You don't need to write a new "cyberbullying" law.

Comment Re:My concerns (Score 1) 601

I doubt your WiFi network would be in trouble if they are jamming cellular & PCS frequencies. And "jamming" a cell phone network isn't a high-power endeavor. Put a micro-basestation operating inside the facility, and phones operating inside the facility will likely find it over more distant base stations outside. What you connect the micro basestation to is then up to you. If nothing, then all phone calls go into the bit-bucket.
Google

Submission + - The killer application for Chrome? iTunes. (blogspot.com)

tomchristie writes: "This is all just speculation at the moment, but I've got a take on what Apple are hiding right now that I think is pretty compelling. Apple's entire strategy for the last year or two has been aiming at the release of Chrome The next generation of iTunes will not run solely on iPods, iPhones, Mac and Windows — it will run on the Chrome platform. (Whether that's Safari+Gears or Chrome itself isn't important) Apple will be providing purchase, rental and subscription services for music, movies, and TV shows that live in the cloud and run on any device that has a browser that supports Gears and has a decent enough javascript engine to run these new kinds of web applications. The songs and movies that you own, or the channels that you have subscribed to, will be accessible from just about any Phone, Mobile device or Games console, or at least those that have built-in decent Gears support. And those that haven't yet got built-in support will be falling over themselves to do so as they lose market share to everyone else who has. Google's Chrome platform will be everywhere, pushed to the forefront by the lure of Apple's services, defining the shape of the software and media industries of the future, and neutralising Microsoft's long held dominance of the industry by changing the rules of the game. The killer application for Chrome? iTunes. Oh and one last thing... Apple's "Let's Rock" event, which we were told would be a big deal, delivered nothing spectacular. What new product did they just release? — the Nano CHROMEatic. Coincidence? Full article here: http://tomchristie.blogspot.com/index.html"

Slashdot Top Deals

The one day you'd sell your soul for something, souls are a glut.

Working...