March 2024 - Inkscape Board of Directors

Contributor Hardware Policy
by Jonathan Neuhauser 03 Apr '24

03 Apr '24

==== Background ==== The developer team would like to improve cross platform support, and one measure towards that goal is to improve the access to Windows and macOS machines for core contributors. With merging the GTK4 branch, there is new interest in such a program. Martin and I have drawn up a policy for this program, which is attached. It mostly combines my previous email with your comments, plus some context around it. We've decided against excluding mice and keyboards, although I understand where the objection comes from. As other peripherals, such as color-correcting screens, stylus-like devices, etc. they may be relevant for improved hardware support (e.g.macOS specific keyboards, the touchpad and stylus included with Microsoft Surface keyboard covers etc.). I would, however, expect that a developer who returns a keyboard would at least wipe it a little bit! Again, the policy is directed at proven and trusted contributors. We'd like to test out the procedure of the policy, so if it passes, I'd ask the four people listed in the last email to request the hardware as per section 3. ==== Vote ==== a) Approve the attached hardware policy. b) Don't approve the attached hardware policy. c) Other: .... Thanks in advance, Jonathan

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[Poll / RFC] Google Season of Docs
by Jonathan Neuhauser 02 Apr '24

02 Apr '24

Dear PLC, The current iteration of Google Season of Docs, a program which connects FOSS projects with professional technical writers, is accepting applications by organisations until Monday. * We have come up with 2 project ideas. * Every organisation can submit at most one proposal. The guidelines for a proposal are given here: https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs/docs/org-proposal-template?hl=… * If the proposal is accepted, the organisation must hire exactly one technical writer to perform the work. "Technical writer" is a very loosely defined term, and this technical writer may already be a project contributor. * For both proposals, there would be one interested technical writer from within the project. * All financials are managed via OpenCollective. The SFC is working to create an OpenCollective account for us / them in time. * In any case, general project finances will be unaffected. The proposals are listed on https://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/Google_Season_of_Docs_2024. Please read them, and respond with your preference until Sunday evening. If you have any improvement suggestions for your chosen proposal, send them as well. Note regarding proposal 1: There's a caveat here that we didn't include in the proposal, and that has to do with licensing. The SFC needs to check the original contract of Tav's with the publisher to decide under which license the updated book (and its source) can be published. In Tav's opinion, a CC license on the output (i.e. the website) should be possible, and moving the book to the inkscape.org domain as well. However, Tav would also like to keep certain rights to the book, such as preventing others from selling it as a book (so a CC-NC-* license), but also keeping the option for him to sell it. This might need a CLA on the repository of the book and definitely needs legal work. But even with these issues, updating the book would be a net benefit to the project! === Poll === a) Prefer Proposal 1: Update INKSCAPE – Guide to a Vector Drawing Program b) Prefer Proposal 2: Update Inkscape's Beginners' guide c) Other, please suggest an alternative d) Don't apply to GSoD. Further suggestions: ______ ========== Thanks in advance, Jonathan

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Developer Meeting Notes; March 28th
by Martin Owens 28 Mar '24

28 Mar '24

Hey everyone, Big developer meeting this week, thanks to everyone who came and participated. Event: https://inkscape.org/cals/event/1/ Next Meeting: Friday April 5th, 1pm EST Attending: Marc, Martin, Mikekov, René, pbs, Ravi Arora, Tamir, Vaibhav, Tav, Javier ------- (René) We have macOS Apple silcon for Gtk4. We don't have intel support and we don't have a full test suite run. René wants to merge them with about 4 tests failing to recruit some help from other people. The new version of Gtk4 will be out soon. There is a time out delay in the test suite which René was hoping would be fixed in the next Gtk release, but hasn't so it'll have to be looked into as the test suite takes too long. Martin wanted to know how the macOS version on Gtk4 is performing. René reports that there is plenty of bugs, but the speed seems compariable. The extensions don't work yet. Some objects aren't appearing when drawn and pbs thinks this is a missed events. René will work on Windows development/building when the MSYS2 libraries are updated. ------- Mikekov has been trying to fix some regressions with 1.4.x, and has been fixing Gtk4 every now and then. Mikekov wants to merge the "Font selector UX study" into 1.4.x, it would be switched off by default. He's making a version for the Gtk4 master branch before it would ever be switched on. https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/-/merge_requests/4578 The developer team are ok with it being merged. ------- Vaibhav has been working on the toolbars, specifically issues with the text toolbar. It's almost ready to go. Mikekov mentioned the size of combo boxes in Gtk4. PBS had some ideas for how to set group priorities using boxes in the UI file by having boxes in boxes. Designers/UX-team can now customise the toolbars in such a way that they can decide what should disapear first when the toolbars are too small. ------- Jonathan asked about the SFC getting in touch. Martin and Vaibhav have recieved information from the SFC about the Bug Accelerator project. But Tav's email might have gotten eaten by his spam filter. Martin has signed the contract adjustment and will start working on bugs on April 1st. Vaibhav is communicating his details which should be complete by next week. ------- Martin and René worked on fixing a double parsing mystery issue in the color parser on macOS which turned out to be a long standing difference between clang and gcc with the C++ specification. Martin wrote a custom double parser for macOS and PBS suggested a possible function in lib2geom which might fix it too. (Martin) Rebasing the color branch for gtk4 - "new code". Some adjustement needed, but thankfully few of them. UI conflicts were easy to spot and look doable (still a few things like sliders, color drag and drop, to fix). The branch is big, and tiring to maintain. PBS offers help ------- (jabier) split of the mega corners fix into a 7 MR. It add stability to this LPE seems one or the most crashing one, by the way I implement beabiours to work as expected in operations like Join,Combine, Brak Apart, alowing retain spected results. Fix also lot of issues with knots than usualy crash even away of the LPE system. Also fix a issue in the status bar toolbar, targeted to windows OS, that fix a big lag randomly dragging and creation cause by a upstream bug in probably Pango or Label Gtk3 implementation. Finaly I do a Linux issue about redrawing SelectorStyle in status bar afecting debian Adwaita when we change some labels from normal to bold. Whole app is resized. ------- Ravi is contributing to GSoC looking at the node based editor using an infinate canvas with widgets. Experimenting with the Gtk4 branch and has noticed a lot of issues. Marc makes sure what everyone has their two merge requests accepted. ------- PBS had an unmerge request with SPDesktop refactoring which will be coming soon. A bunch of changes which he's wanted to fix for a while. Fixing lots of issues with popups and their life times. PBS asks the AppImage tool yanks the old app images and we should pin the app images. Marc says we need to store things in a place that we control. There are some issues with AppImages, for example it doesn't have GPU support. A possible tool to try out is AppImageCrafters. https://github.com/appimagecrafters/appimage-builder ------- Marc has been managing the GSoC and wants to make sure that their merge requsts and proposal drafts are getting reviewed in time. He asks everyone if they'd like to be mentors with GSoC. Jabier asks how much time it would take and Marc says that it really depends on the student as it can be as low as just reviewing the merge requests but it could be a student that needs a lot more help. ------- Martin would like to remind everyone to keep reviewing all merge requests if possible. ------- René explained why the version of XCode tools is pegged to a specific version to pbs and mikekov after the meeting ended. So technically this part of the meeting notes is impossible, since it was sent before people finished talking. See you all next time!

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[Vote] Hardware for Developers
by Jonathan Neuhauser 27 Mar '24

27 Mar '24

Dear PLC, ==== Background ==== The developer team would like to improve cross platform support, and one measure towards that goal is to improve the access to Windows and macOS machines for core contributors. With merging the GTK4 branch (yay!) I'd like to give this idea a try. I've conducted a poll in the developer chat about whose work would benefit from a macOS / Windows machine, results see below. We require a short device policy for this. It's intentionally simple, as this will be relevant only to people we already trust. I've discussed this with René in advance. ==== Device Policy ==== 1) The Inkscape project entrusts the devices to individual contributors, selected by Project Leadership Committee (PLC) vote. 2) The project asks of the contributor to use the hardware primarily in a way that serves the project goal. Within these boundaries, the contributor may use the devices as they see fit. In particular, they have root (or comparable) permission on those devices, and can configure it to their needs. 3) The project asks the contributors to handle the device with care. 4) The project expects the contributor to return / pass on the device once their cross-platform work is finished, or they stop making meaningful and sustained contributions; gatherings like the Inkscape Summit, FOSDEM or LGM are good opportunities for this. 5) The PLC reserves the right to recall / reclaim the device at any time and the project will cover the shipping costs. 6) When returning the device (4 or 5), the contributor is expected to hand over the device in a usable state. 6) The projects accepts that the device may break while in possession of the contributor. Return or warranty policies should be taken advantage of. In the event of willful or clearly negligent damage, the contributor shall replace the device. ==== Selection of recipients & devices ==== From the poll and previous discussion, the following contributors are interested: - Tavmjong: macOS (Gtk4 development. Cross-platform support) - pbs3141: Windows (Fixing bugs/missing functionality/bad performance in Inkscape and GTK4, improving Visual Studio integration, investigating bundled Mesa/MoltenVK.) - VaibhavMalik4187: macOS (GTK4 migration) - Adam Belis: Windows (Testing on Windows, HiDPI, Touchscreen / Pencil support) Following this vote, these contributors may choose a device that suits their needs, and that they expect to be useful for other developers in the future. For example, Mac Mini Pro + Keyboard, Surface Pro, or just a general Windows machine with maxed out CPU. (They may of course decline the above Device Policy, then they won't get a device.) ==== Budget and Formalities === Allocate USD 2,000 for each contributor listed above for this purpose. The SFC will decide how to formally do this - directly buying the devices or reimbursing them. ==== Vote ==== a) Approve the above device policy, and allocate a total of $8,000. Each of the 4 contributors listed above are eligible to be sent / buy & be reimbursed for a device that they choose, with a per-contributor budget of $2,000. b) Only approve the device policy, I don't agree with the choice of contributors. c) Don't approve either. d) Other: .... Thanks in advance, Jonathan

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Developer Meeting Notes: March 12th 2024
by doctormo＠gmail.com 12 Mar '24

12 Mar '24

Dear Developers, Thanks everyone for coming to this week's meeting. We had a short meeting and then worked through a bunch of really old merge requests. If you had an MR which was not marked as draft but had it's last activity more than 7 months ago, we might have closed your MR to keep things clean. Reopen branches and mark them as draft if you are still working on them. Some were also reviewed and approved. We're down to 58 open merge requests. ---- Meeting: https://inkscape.org/cals/event/1/ Attending: Jonathan, Martin, Tav, René, Vaibhav, Elendil (Krlr17) # Bug Accelerator Program Jonathan Has tried to contact pono who is the third people in the hiring committee to finalise the process. May have to create tickets and move forwards as best as we can. # Machines for Developers Sent out a poll if people need a windows or macOS machine for their work. 2 responses. Will be approved case by case basis by the PLC since there won't be very many requests. # Website issues Martin was working on spam protections this morning. No further issues with DDos this week. # MacOS Rene has made it possible to get log files in the macOS tests on the CI. Probably an oversight in how it was created. The good news is that it's as fast as it used to be, under 5 minutes instead of 20 minutes. Achieved by downgrading to a previous os version likely a gtk issue. # Windows Wants to work on the Gtk4 windows builder. It's not ready yet, but expected int he next couple of days. # Gtk4 Tav has started working on a couple of different things. Doing the preview in the export dialog in the Gtk4 branch. Vaibhav is working on bug fixes on the Gtk4 branch this week. # Release Mikekov is looking at discrepencies between master and 1.3.x to see what is happening and what might need be fixed. Especially for the migration work. Made some MRs to adjust those small things, maintly cosmetic. Elendil - Reports an unstream windows issue with Pango which is fixed upstream but needs to make it's way to our msys2 builds. Will report it to msys2. # Other items Martin continues his work on the Color branch, not breakthroughs to report as of yet. Thanks everyone, see you all next week!

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Inkscape Summit at Rennes LGM: Vote
by tavmjong＠free.fr 10 Mar '24

10 Mar '24

Committee members, your response is required: a) Approve this proposal. b) Disapprove this proposal. c) Change this proposal. Background: Inkscape has traditionally held a gathering in conjunction with LGM (Libre Graphics Meeting). It's been a great success, not only to direct development of Inkscape, but also to the Inkscape community. We plan on doing the same for this years event (May 9-12th in Rennes, France). In order to be more inclusive of the Inkscape community, the event will be named "Inkscape Summit".** All Inkscape community members are welcome to attend. This proposal is to allocate funds to support Inkscape community members with travel expenses to, from, and during the event (transportation, accommodation, meals, misc. expenses), including attending LGM. Support will be offered to all active community members. Members can ask for support by contacting Tavmjong (the event organizer) with a short statement listing their contributions to Inkscape in the past year and with what they plan on working on during the summit.** In the past we've offered up to $2000 per person. I would propose increasing that to $2500 given the amount of inflation over the past few years. Most attendees will be coming from the European area so average travel costs should be lower. See: https://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/Inkscape_Summit_2024_Rennes Proposal: Allocate funds to support travel to an Inkscape Summit and to LGM. Up to $2500 will be available to each participant, subject to the SFC travel policy. The maximum total amount being limited to $25000 without further PLC approval. Allocate $500 for an Inkscape dinner for Inkscape community members and their guests. Allocate $200 for snacks during the Inkscape Summit. Authorize Tavmjong to approve applications for travel support. Notes: Meeting location to be confirmed with Cedric. ** After discussion with developers and Vectors about event name and travel support eligibility.

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Announcement: The Inkscape 1.4 About Screen contest is upon us!
by Maren Hachmann 03 Mar '24

03 Mar '24

For each new version of Inkscape, we invite all Inkscape artists, newcomers and seasoned professionals, to submit an artwork for the "About Screen" contest. The About Screen Contest is about more than the About Screen. Contest artwork is also frequently featured in news articles about the release, on the inkscape.org download page, and in other locations. Each and every submission also helps us test the newest version of Inkscape. The topic for this year's contest is "GROWTH". We're excited to see what great art is submitted this year! We're looking forward to your contributions, to helping spread the message about the contest, and helping us select a winner! Learn more here: https://inkscape.org/community/about-screen-contests/ Your Inkscape Vectors Team

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