If my last message didn't send properly here is that link again to the
video: https://youtu.be/4stNumKreTc

Ryan

On March 27, 2018 4:49:16 PM Bryce Harrington <bryce@...961...>
wrote:

A recap of some discussions that have been under way...

0. On the first day I gave a presentation on modularity, and identified
areas in both Inkscape the codebase and Inkscape the project, to
encapsulate complexity into more easily understood chunks, with well
defined and simple interfaces between them.

1. Gtk3 (and Gtk4) issues were brainstormed.  We use several Gtk2
functionalities which are deprecated in Gtk3, and may be removed in
Gtk4.  We scoped out ideas for transitioning, such as migrating from
GtkAction to GAction, and GtkMain to GtkApplication.  The discussions
helped clear some blockers, and Alex is now digging into the code and
working out how we can do the change with minimum impact on UI
appearance or behavior.

Longer term, once these transitions are made, there are a number of more
impactful changes that could be attempted.  One scheme we scoped out was
to separate the frontend and backend of Inkscape, using GActions as the
interface.  The backend would present a lengthy list of all of its
internal operations (Actions).  There would be separate sets of Document
Actions (like moving a node on a Bézier curve) and Window Actions (like
resizing the window).  The frontend UI would translate its widget clicks
and menu picks into the corresponding actions and pass them down.  Apart
from giving us better organized code, this could also make it easier to
have multiple kinds of UI's (e.g. a simplified "kidscape" interface) or
even no-UI (e.g. a headless version that processes commands through
command line args or a batch language).

2.  Website strategy is under heavy discussion.  It's been a while since
the website has had a design refresh, and whiteboard markers are
flowing.  Improving mobile friendliness seems important, also better use
of graphics and videos is being explored, and better emphasis on using
some of the great user stories out there.  There's also a recognition
that we have needs for something more user-facing (e.g. something
"brochure-like") and something more back-office-y (the contributor
community, aka "contributy").  A lot of this will need a lot more
hashing out and collecting wider ideas, but I'm looking forward to
seeing how this work proceeds in coming weeks and months.

3.  Variable fonts.  This new type of font permits e.g. sliding scale of
style aspects like bold between letter forms.  Some implementation work
has already been done, but the hackfest has been used to hash out some
remaining questions and implementation details.  There's still some
UX/UI questions on how it should be implemented in the interface.

4.  Improved gradients using random dithering in pixman.  Lots of
discussions in both IRL and IRC around Mc's code to add better
gradient rendering to pixman, that avoids banding by randomly dithering
the colors.  The patch has been proposed to pixman and some feedback's
been received, but still mulling over how to actually get this feature
into use.

5.  Color management / CMYK.  We had an in-depth discussion between
coders and designers to hash out what we ought to be shooting for in
terms of requirements.  We discussed a "print pre-flight dialog" concept
that had come up in some of the Vectors team discussions.  What's needed
as a next step is to flesh out the concept - workflow use cases, a
mockup UI, and analysis of how data in/out flows need to work.  There
are a lot of ideas and user stories, that need gelled into something
coherent that people can start throwing darts at.

6.  SVG 2 working group, and future directions.  A number of features we
wanted to see included in the SVG 2 spec sound like they will get
dropped.  Further, this change of direction by the WG suggests it may
get tougher to include artistic-oriented features in future revisions of
the spec.  We discussed some of the problems, but the path forward for
us is unclear.


---

I'm certain I've missed a number of the discussions here, and am not
capturing all the work under way.  Hopefully other attendees can fill in
what I've missed or gotten wrong, and provide more details from my above
summary.  Please ask questions, too.

Bryce



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