2015-08-20 22:01 GMT+02:00 Martin Owens <doctormo@...400...>:
On Wed, 2015-08-19 at 09:40 -0500, Ted Gould wrote:
Question for the candidates:
Inkscape has tried to be welcoming to both developer and non-developer contributions to the project. Do you think the project has been successful there? Is it getting better or worse? What could/should we do to recognize or encourage non-developer contributions?
This overlaps somewhat with the first question from Tav, so my answer to that also applies here.
I agree with Alex's idea that it would be great to have more 'levels' at which one can contribute; right now besides core development, we can accept bug fixes, extensions using the 'black box filter' model, and tutorials. Emphasizing other ways to extend Inkscape, such as procedural templates, filter presets, symbol sets and scripts, could provide stepping stones towards core development for new contributors.
Another important thing is to make the process of contributing more discoverable. Distributing extra content (templates, filters, symbol sets, advanced tutorials, etc.) via our website and the 'installers' I mentioned would facilitate this, and furthermore it would be easier to give credit to the contributor. Integration with Open Clip Art Library was also a very good idea and I think it should be revived.
One thing that was not mentioned so far is our core programming documentation. The lib2geom Doxygen docs are in fairly good shape, even if sometimes incomplete or too terse. However, the Inkscape docs are rather spotty and lack a high level overview of Inkscape's architecture. I think that improving them would make life a lot easier for beginners. This task is in fact a very good candidate for funded development.
Regards, Krzysztof