-On the service file:
I think, Aaron, that what would be more useful is to have the service.in file modified to point to whichever Inkscape is currently being compiled (easy to implement.) Then it will work with in place installations. This would still require the use of sudo in the make install step to move the service file to dbus's service folder (I think making separate service folders would be more trouble than it's worth. The end result is that the Inkscape service file would always point to the last Inkscape version installed.
Ted is right that it is not a crucial feature. I implemented it mostly because it was so easy. Although, it does mean that the example code will always run, weather or not Inkscape is active, which is one less potential error message for new adopters.
On starting a session bus:
If the user has DBus installed they probably have a session bus running. I could start one if it's not or just assume they are not going to use DBus and not do any DBus stuff. Either one would work, and I don't think it makes a huge difference.
On the Windows version:
We have resisted for a long time the temptation to treat non-Unix boxes as limited-capability ports. An --ENORMOUS-- amount of work has been expended to prevent that from happening. Please let's not surrender now.
I think that the difference here is that DBus is not part of Inkscape. If a windows user has DBus installed I _absolutely_ want to support that. If they don't however, I can't really install it for them. At this point, Windows DBus is still in development so it's not very likely that windows users will have it. As soon as it is available, We'll make sure Inkscape supports it.
If someone is running Inkscape in a cygwin or MinGW environment where DBus is available we should support that as well.
Let me know if you think there is a problem with that assessment of the current situation.
On recent Progress:
I'm still working on getting returning list structures working, but I have a new idea that might work. Packaging is still in progress but I think I have a better idea of what I'm doing now. Tomorrow I'll post a list of functions that are broken and a list of functions that need minor changes.
Thank you all for your interest,
-Soren