Hi,
Just writing with some experiences of the latest Dev build for windows.
1. It seems to be rendering a bit faster lately. Probably due to Bob's hard work with dll's and the latest Cairo. Thanks!
2. PDF output seems to be doing gradients and transparency quite well (as vector art not raster), which is great :-D, but still not blurs :-((. Again probably due to Cairo improvements. Getting close!
3. The windows dialogues have kicked in I notice. Trying to view a thumbnail causes a crash on my system. I also miss the GTK ability to store your own folder shortcuts on the side. Have to find some windows program to do that!
4. With the windows dialogues (or perhaps related to Alexandre's changes - see http://www.nabble.com/Regarding-WMF%2C-PS-based-AI%2C-SK-and-FIG-files-suppo... here ) the saving sequence seems to be messed up.
4a. If I select save as PDF via Cairo, it goes for the selection immediately below, which is PS. If I select EMF, it saves it as POV. Whatever I want, I have to go for the one above, but you can't now re-select Inkscape SVG. Always one step below, unless I just hit save, which does whatever was last without problem.
4b There's a weird loop going on when saving, which I think is related to the bug above. See my comment at step 4 below. 1. Save something as an Inkscape SVG (default). 2. Save as PDF or whatever else. 3. Save again as Inkscape SVG and try to close Inkscape. 4. Inkscape complains 'The file "{filename.svg}" was saved in a format that may cause data loss! Do you want to save the file as an Inkscape SVG?' options - Close Without Saving, Cancel, Save as SVG. (I think this is caused because now when you select Save As -> Inkscape SVG, you're actually choosing Plain SVG (the one below), which Inkscape thinks will cause data loss). 5. Click ' Save as SVG' 6. Back to step 3 and infinite loop - must select 'Close Without Saving' to escape the loop.
Obviously some good steps forward have been made, but a few minor problems have crept in.
I hope this is helpful.
Rygle.