Hello,
My name is Matthew Petroff, and I am an undergraduate at Johns Hopkins University majoring in Physics and Computer Science. I've used Inkscape for about six years, and have also created SVG files by hand. I've been involved with FOSS for a few years now, namely Hugin [1] and, more recently, FontForge [2], mainly as a builder.
For Google Summer of Code, I would like to improve unit handling in Inkscape. It is my understanding that Inkscape's current unit handling is scattered across the code base in various locations, and from personal experience, I know Inkscape's unit handling could use improvement. To start, I would refactor all of Inkscape's unit handling into one centralized location. I would then extend this unit handling to allow for easier use of "real" units, e.g. millimeters, both on the document wide level and for individual objects, as has already been outlined in a blueprint [3].
Thoughts?
-Matthew Petroff
[1] http://hugin.sourceforge.net/ [2] http://fontforge.org/ [3] http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/BlueprintRealUnit