Re: RTF import/export emacs (was: New Emacs features via Google Summer of Code (or other similar stipend schemes))

[Eli Zaretskii <eliz@gnu.org>]

> Date: Sun, 18 Aug 2024 10:37:51 -0700
> Cc: acorallo@gnu.org, emacs-devel@gnu.org, stefankangas@gmail.com
> From: Jim Porter <jporterbugs@gmail.com>
> 
> On 8/18/2024 7:35 AM, Ihor Radchenko wrote:
> >>> Some text flowing around the images
> >>>   ...
> >>> Or text and image displayed on top of each other.
> >>
> >> We aren't afraid of that in EWW and shr.el, are we?  We could use the
> >> same technique here.
> > 
> > You mean slicing? This may work for flowing text around, but it will not
> > work for overlaying images and text.
> 
> EWW/shr.el don't actually use slicing for flowing text, as far as I 
> know. I suppose that could work, but I'd be worried about 
> miscalculations causing the slices to be misaligned (for example if we 
> tried to support the CSS 'float: right' property).

Using :align-to should allow us to align the slices horizontally (if
that is what you had in mind).

> In short, EWW/shr.el's strategy for flowing text around images is to 
> simply ignore it (unless I'm misunderstanding part of that code).

Right, and the display of RTF could do the same.

> For RTF support, I don't know if Emacs needs to support all (or even 
> most) features of RTF to still be useful. If Emacs showed images on 
> their own line no matter what the RTF document requests, that's still a 
> big improvement over not being able to view RTF documents at all.

I say let's start from the text parts: the fonts, the faces, the
indentation, the numbered and unnumbered lists, etc.  If we can pull
that out, we will already have a terrifically useful feature.

Rome wasn't built in a day.