Ben Tomasini Welcome Guest | Login or Register

Update: Emacs22 is now available via apt. Before trying this try sudo apt-get install emacs22. You will still need to edit your .emacs file as instructed in the last paragraph to handle Java annotations.

Emacs 22 is now released. I have installed on my Ubuntu Feisty Fawn system. The package is not yet available on the apt repositories, so this required building from source. Here are the steps I followed:

Install prerequisites as follows:
sudo apt-get install g++
sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-dev

Download the source from http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/emacs/emacs-22.1.tar.gz.

After unpacking, run:
./configure --with-gtk --enable-font-backend --with-xft --with-freetype
make
sudo make install

Voila! The executable is now installed at: /usr/local/bin/emacs-22.1

The java-mode still does not handle annotations correctly. Getting around this requires adding the following to the ~/.emacs file. It simply treats annotations as comments:

(add-hook
 'java-mode-hook
 '(lambda () "Treat Java 1.5 @-style annotations as comments."
    (setq c-comment-start-regexp "(@|/(/|[*][*]?))")
    (modify-syntax-entry ?@ "< b" java-mode-syntax-table)))

My notebook dual boots Ubuntu and Windows.  Sharing files between the two systems has historically been an issue.

I just upgraded to version 7.04 - Feisty Fawn.  While opening a file in The Gimp, I noticed an extra hard drive listed in the dialog.  It was my Windows NTFS partition.  Sweet!  The file system mounts read only by default, but write support can be enabled.  More information can be found here. 

I am not an artist, but now and then I have a need to create some illustrations for presentations. A couple of years ago I was searching around for packages for my Linux notebook and did not find much that was useful. The GIMP works fine for raster graphics, but not vector graphics. There was Dia, but that didn’t seem to work for me.

Now there are two great software packages for Linux: Inkscape and Xara. Installing both on my Ubuntu system was a snap:

$ sudo apt-get install inkscape
$ sudo apt-get install xaralx

Inkscape

Inkscape is really cool. I am a big fan of SVG, which Inkscape uses at its native file format. It has an intuitive interface and was easy to use. The connector features is a great way to connect shapes in a diagram like Visio. Inkscape works on Windows, Mac and Linux. And when you are ready to publish, simple export it as a bitmap (PNG).

An aside about SVG itself… SVG can be a great way to provide some dynamic elements to web applications, especially when used with JavaScript. Kevin Lindsey has some excellent resources at his site http://www.kevlindev.com/. The current problem with SVG is support for IE, since Adobe discontinued support for it, presumably as a result of its acquisition of Flex.

Xara

The story behind Xara is interesting. The FAQ states that one of the reasons for releasing this product open source, in addition to slashing their Windows product price, was a response to Microsoft’s entrance into the illustration software market with Expression.

The software is great. I was able to create some simple drawings very quickly. The free version is only available on Linux. A Mac version is on its way. The Windows version can be purchased for $79.

My Uneducated Choice

Both are great products. Inkscape has a vibrant community and looks to really develop in the future. Not being a graphic artist, it is hard to say which one is better. My impression is that Xara is a bit more mature. I will probably use it over Inkscape for now. It is just amazing to me to consider that only a few years ago one would have to spend hundreds of dollars for this kind of software - not to mention waiting for a CD to ship. Now with distributions like Ubuntu Linux, all it takes is a simple installation command and 2 minutes of waiting. Cool.