Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2019 June 1

= June 1 =

Google help
If I want to search for "E. D. Simon", I get a lot of irrelevant results on the lines of Ed Simon or ed.). Simon & Schuster. How do I stop it doing this? THanks, DuncanHill (talk) 00:26, 1 June 2019 (UTC)
 * This works . Sleigh (talk) 11:31, 1 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Using quotes for exact match, both Google and Duck use the parameter "&q=%22E.+D.+Simon%22" and thus apparently look for the sequence "E." "D." "Simon", case-insensitive and with the period optional. That is not my understanding of "exact match". Jmar67 (talk) 13:13, 1 June 2019 (UTC)

Drawing apps
Which apps allow one to draw lines, circular/elliptical arcs, arrows and text boxes on an infinite canvas and color between the lines? 2601:646:8A00:A0B3:1C3:741A:FF1C:6A88 (talk) 06:21, 1 June 2019 (UTC)


 * Inkscape 87.112.169.204 (talk) 11:25, 1 June 2019 (UTC)


 * On what operating system ? Apple ? Windows ? Android ? Something else ? SinisterLefty (talk) 19:05, 1 June 2019 (UTC)


 * As per the article, FreeBSD, MS-Windows, Linux, MacOS. LongHairedFop (talk) 20:30, 1 June 2019 (UTC)


 * Thanks, but note the indent level, indicating I was asking the OP which O/S he is using, rather than asking 87.112.169.204 which O/S's support Inkscape. SinisterLefty (talk) 23:34, 1 June 2019 (UTC)


 * To answer the question: I'm looking for an app for Windows (specifically one compatible with Windows 7). 2601:646:8A00:A0B3:1C3:741A:FF1C:6A88 (talk) 01:15, 2 June 2019 (UTC)
 * The answer is None unless you count this. DroneB (talk) 22:07, 2 June 2019 (UTC)
 * How come? Inkscape has been previously mentioned -- is its canvas not infinite? 2601:646:8A00:A0B3:E143:3EF:8DB:B5B7 (talk) 02:45, 3 June 2019 (UTC)
 * In Inkscape the canvas describes the space where SVG objects are rendered. It is the area for drawing objects and may extend beyond the zoom (viewable) area. Chap.8 Coordinate Systems, Transformations and Units clarifies: All SVG content is drawn inside SVG viewports. Every SVG viewport defines a drawing region characterized by a size (width, height), and an origin, measured in abstract user units....Abstractly, all SVG viewports are embedded in the canvas, a drawing region that is infinitely large in all relevant dimensions. This Wikibooks section awaits attention. DroneB (talk) 16:34, 3 June 2019 (UTC)
 * But can you make the drawing region as big as you want, or is there a hard limit on how big it can be? (That, I guess, is how I should have phrased my original question!) 2601:646:8A00:A0B3:E143:3EF:8DB:B5B7 (talk) 01:18, 4 June 2019 (UTC)


 * Well, as long as you are dealing with vector graphics, I see no inherent limit on the canvas size (well, perhaps an eventual limit, but it would be huge). For a circle, for example, you only need an X and Y coord, and a radius, and other attributes like color, name and line thickness. Those numeric values could all be handled with scientific notation, easily allowing for a size bigger than the universe.


 * With raster graphics, on the other hand, something like a million pixels in each direction would be about the limit, for a trillion total, if the limitation is being able to store it all on a hard disk, uncompressed. Or if you want to be able to store the raster all in memory, uncompressed, it would be more like a billion pixels total as the limit. With compression, you could store far more, provided most of the space is empty, but then you would have a performance hit every time the data is compressed and uncompressed.


 * So, vector graphics is definitely what you want for an infinite canvas. Of course, poorly written vector graphics programs might still attempt to render a large circle as an excessive number of pixels, and cause the program to crash, while a well written vector program would correctly render just the number of pixels needed to display at the current zoom level. I will give Inkscape the benefit of a doubt and assume it is well written.


 * Note that "filling in color between the lines" is inherently a raster process (as an infinite number of vectors would be required). However, an otherwise vector program could just render the pixels currently displayed on the screen, to show a filled-in area. Again we have the possibility that a poorly written program might try to shade in areas well beyond those currently displayed, and hang the program. SinisterLefty (talk) 02:17, 5 June 2019 (UTC)