TikZKit

Next to being a palindrome, TikZKit is a graphical what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) editor for PGF/TikZ. PGF/TikZ in turn is a markup package that allows to create most beautiful pictures in LaTeX. The core features of TikZKit are:

1. Exact rendering as if you had generated the picture through LaTeX.
2. TikZ export, obtaining TikZ code that can easily be manipulated.

Please join tikzkit development to quickly get to a usable state.

Architecture

TikZKit is written in modern C++ and Qt5. It is organized in two libraries following the model/view concept, and the application:

1. tikzcore: This library provides the data model. The model entirely defines a TikZ picture. The model itself is represented by the class tikz::core::Document.
2. tikzui: This library provides the view. It renders the scene by using the QGraphicsView based on a tikz::core::Document.
3. TikZKit: The application is a thin wrapper around the libraries tikzcore and tikzui.

TODO List for a first tikzkit 1.0 release (incomplete)

tikzcore

• tikz::core::Document (priority: high)

  • makro support: implement Entity::toJsonObject() in all Entity classes. This way, Entities can by serialized to JSON, and by replaying the JSON makro, items can be e.g. copy & pasted, or template can be created.
  • add tikz::core::Layer: These layers match pgf layers when exported to PGF/TikZ, e.g. background, nodes, edges, foreground
  • add tikz::core::Scope: These scopes match \begin{scope} ... \end{scope} in PGF/TikZ. These scopes can be used to group items that share a style.

• Add tikz::core::AbstractProperty

  • implement set of required property types (ColorProperty, ValueProperty, TextProperty, BoolProperty, StringListProperty, DoubleProperty, PosisionProperty)
  • allow adding / removing properties at runtime, so that the property system is extensible e.g. through plugins

• MetaPos: x und y so trennen, dass es von unterschiedlichen Positions/Anchors kommt.

• TexGenerator verbessern (mehrere jobs parallel, saubere kapselung, QTemporaryDir)

• logo

• class Package? -> tikz package + tikz options

• introduce tikz::Editor: add EntityFactoryInterface similar to KTE::CommandInterface, add class EntityFactory that returns a list of QStrings ("node-rectangle", ... ?

• implement pseudo-plugin that uses the EntityFactory

• tikz::core::Path (priority: high)

  • add support for rectangle primitive
  • add support for grid primitive
  • add support for simple edges (straight, bending, bezier)
  • add support for polygonal lines and shapes

• tikz::core::Node (priority: medium)

  • support anchors above, left, below, right and combinations
  • support anchoring on other anchors

• visitors (priority: high)

  • fix TikZ export Visitor
  • (load visitor, currently unused)
  • (save visitor, currently unused)

tikzui

• property editor:

  • show properties of the selected item
  • use Transaction to group properties
  • add default/reset button
  • add support for categories and coloring of categories

• LaTeX to SVG generator

  • proper design of the class with cleanup of the metadata (use QTemporaryDir)
  • proper diagnostics, if the dvisvg

• shapes

  • add more shapes
  • add more arrows

• zoom control: Add widget to display current zoom level

app

• TikZKit
• add icons to actions

integration test (priority: medium)

• implement testing suite:
  • tests are listed in a list view on the left
  • ability to add a new test
  • test
    • user graphically creates scene: add/manipulate nodes/edges
    • baseline
      • save the scene as TeX/TikZ code and convert to pdf
      • use libpoppler-qt4 to render the pdf from the TeX/TikZ code
      • save pdf as png
      • render TikzScene to png
    • use pdiff to check the graphical diff
    • fail test only on user specified threshold