[Inkscape-devel] Future 0.92.x bugfix releases

24 Mar 2018

      Let's plan on a 0.92.4 in a few months, maybe in the May/June timeframe.
As we've talked about in the past, we'll be continuing to do bugfix
releases on the 0.92.x branch for the foreseeable future, and we'll be
treating it as an equivalent of a 'long term stable' series for Inkscape
in case changes.  Some aggressive changes in 0.93 may lead to bad
breakages for some users, so we want to give them a reliable fallback.
So, please continue backporting good fixes from master into the 0.92.x
branch, and record the changes in release notes:
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Release_notes/0.92.4
If you don't have commit access to 0.92.x (or don't feel comfortable
pushing to it), you can mark bugs in Launchpad with the
'backport-proposed' tag, so committers can more easily spot them.  (But
make sure the bug has a patch attached to it that will actually apply
and build against 0.92.x.)
A few release process todo's I'm aware of:
* Mac builds - need a volunteer
  * 'make distcheck' - needs added to cmake
  * PPA recipe updates - needs scripted [hackfest: bryce/alex]
  * NEWS file update - change python script to use BeautifulSoup [bryce]
  * packager announcements - set up a proper mailing list [bryce]
  * Transition to new RSA 4096 GPG signing key [bryce]
  * cleanup the release documentation [bryce]
  * lp milestone, etc. updates - needs a LP script so its less manual
Let me know if you'd like to help on any of these tasks.
Bryce
On Fri, Mar 23, 2018 at 10:42:17PM -0700, Bryce Harrington wrote:
...
Inkscape 0.92.3 is a maintenance release resolving numerous bugs and
making this the most stable release of the series.
To download the latest packaged version of Inkscape visit:
https://inkscape.org/release/0.92.3/
(Note: A build of 0.92.3 is not currently available for MacOS. The
  project welcomes additional contributors with MacOS expertise.)
Among the most reported bugs addressed were:

Blank pages being output when printing multiple copies of a document
The inability to cancel during the export of large files
Application crashes caused by dragging a path at a cap or line join
Keyboard shortcut problems on non-Latin keyboard layouts

Also a few performance improvements and usability enhancements of note:

New SVG export options from the command line
Support for right-to-left text
Improved ellipse controls
Multi-line text support for the PDF+LaTeX export
New render tile preferences for performance tuning
Better startup performance for many Windows users

Find out more about the release at:
https://inkscape.org/en/news/2018/03/22/announcing-0923-release-inkscape/
                        Inkscape 0.92.3

                 -~=  Released 2018-03-11  =~-

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                          Release Highlights                          |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Inkscape 0.92.3 is mainly a stability and bugfix release, but it also
brings some small new features, like being able to set an ellipses'
radii numerically in the tool controls, or switching the writing
direction from left-to-right to right-to-left. Windows users will be
happy to learn that the long startup times many of them were seeing
could greatly be reduced. A new rendering option with an adjusted
default value can vastly improve performance when working with filters.
Many of the bug fixes address important functionality, like printing
issues, crashes with the node tool or problems with keyboard shortcuts.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                            Improvements                              |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Command line usage
Three new command line options controlling page size are supported when
exporting in SVG format:
• --export-area-drawing (feature requests in bug #1597921 and bug #1722844)
  • --export-area-page while using --export-id
  • --export-margin
Text tool
Support for switching between RTL and LTR writing directions has been
added (on narrow screens, find it by unfolding the overhang menu for the
text tool's tool controls by clicking on the triangle at the far right).
Circle/ellipse/arc tool
New fields for setting vertical/horizontal radius (Rx/Ry) were added to
the tool controls bar. (Bug #1181127)
PDF+LaTeX export
Support for multi-line text with basic support for line-spacing
attribute was added. (Bug #771959)
Please note:
• Currently only the line-spacing of the top level text element is
    considered, i.e. all lines in one text element share the same line
    spacing.
  • LaTeX is much more clever with respect to line spacing, so layout
    might not always be exactly the same as in Inkscape.
  • Make sure to use a continuously scalable font in LaTeX, otherwise
    results might be unexpected.
Preferences
A new renderer option called "Rendering tile multiplier" was
added. Making this value larger can speed up drawing, if you have large
areas with complex filters in your drawing or work a lot with high zoom
levels on filtered objects. Making the value smaller can make zooming
and panning in relevant areas faster on low-end hardware (if there are
no large filtered areas on the visible part of the canvas). The default
value makes your screen consist of about four tiles that are rendered
independently, if you're not using a hidpi screen (which requires more
tiles). For a more detailed explanation, see:
https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape/merge_requests/211#note_62157385.

Startup Performance
The first start of Inkscape on Windows is much faster now.
This is the result of improvements in fontconfig 2.13.0, a third party
library which handles font related tasks for Inkscape. One of the tasks
is creating an index of all fonts available on the system which is much
faster now. If the new indexing causes any issues (i.e. fonts or glyphs
not available that could be used before) make sure to let us know or
report the issue directly to the fontconfig project.
Extensions
Extensions on Windows can now make use of Tkinter, without requiring
users to install it themselves. Tkinter provides functionality for
creating interactive graphical user interfaces. This is used, for
example, by the TexText extension that renders mathematical LaTeX
formulas to SVG (feature request at bug # 1735451).
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                           Regression Fixes                           |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
• Potentially missing command line output in Inkscape 0.92.2 on Windows 7.
    (Bug #1714278)
  • Extensions in the 'Raster' submenu relying on ImageMagick were
    broken and caused crashes in Inkscape 0.92.2 on Windows.
    (Bug #1720330)
  • gcodetools were creating wrong orientation points since the dpi
    change had been made for Inkscape 0.92.
    (Bug #1680760)
  • Regression on 0.92.2 makes it impossible to fill a powerstroke shape
    (Bug #1715433)
  • The preferences dialog was tiny by default.
    (Bug #1360213)
  • Node handles no longer get too large when selected, and they also
    revert back to standard size when deselected.
    (Bug #1568644)
  • Export to .odg (Open Document Drawing) works again on Windows.
    (Bug #1654034)
  • Inkscape no longer freezes when trying to import clipart from
    OpenClipart when the openclipart.org server takes too long to
    respond to requests.
    (Bug #1745521)
  • Text that is written in vertical direction now has its marks
    (e.g. accents) on the correct side again.
    (gitlab commit 2abe0bb6)
  • The 'Clone original' path effect works again to fill a path with a
    PowerStroke applied to it (useful for drawing cartoons)
    (Bug #1715433)
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                          Important bugfixes                          |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
• Fix crash when attempting to drag path at cap or line join.
    (Bug #1691406)
  • Inkscape process did not exit cleanly on Windows.
    (Bugs #1412365 and #1715339; also causing #1714278)
  • File extension was sometimes omitted when adding saved files to Windows'
    list of "recently used documents" resulting in unusable links.
    (git commit 4d599528)
  • Do not crash on systems with illegal fontconfig configurations.
    (Bug #1716516)
  • Resolve issues when attempting to save files to non-existing
    directories.  Could happen for shortcuts.xml and when setting the
    autosave location manually.
    (Bug #1719629)
  • Allow cancellation of bitmap export.
    (Bug #1195929)
  • Fix issues with PDF+LaTeX export: wrong stacking of text/graphics, missing
    pages in PDF output.
    (Bugs #771957, #1417470)
  • Fix shortcuts not working as expected when a non-latin keyboard layout is
    the primary keyboard layout on a system.
    (Bugs #1226962, #1730246, #1734308)
  • Printing multiple copies of the document resulted in one copy and many
    blank pages.
    (Bug #490866, #1733424)
  • Fix export area when exporting single objects to SVG using the --export-id
    command line switch.
    (Bug #1306662, #1707368)
  • Fix DXF output and Windows vector print scaling for documents with a custom
    view box.
    (Bug #1672066)
  • Invalid output generated from extensions no longer makes Inkscape
    crash.
    (gitlab commit 608fa56e)
  • The Ruler Live Path Effect now shows correct measurements in the default
    template (and other non-px-based templates), too
    (Bug #1460858)
  • The Document Properties dialog now has a more compact layout, so all items
    should be accessible on smaller screens
    (Bug #1510831)
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                            More bug fixes                            |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
There were even more issues fixed than those listed above, but these
probably only affect a small portion of users, or are relevant for
development and packaging only.
For a complete list, visit our launchpad bug tracker and see the commit
history on gitlab (all changes from August, 6th 2017 until release
date).
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                             Translations                             |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
The following UI translations received updates:
• French
  • German
  • Icelandic
  • Italian
  • Korean
  • Spanish
  • Ukrainian
The following installer translations received updates:
• Korean
Contributing to interface translations
Want to help with translations? Learn how to help at:
https://inkscape.org/contribute/translations/

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                            Documentation                             |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
Documentation Relaunch
The Inkscape documentation repository, containing the man page, the
keyboard shortcut list as well as the tutorials and their respective
translation files, has been almost completely refactored (Java has been
dropped in favor of Python), and was updated to work with git and
gitlab.
Documentation Updates
The man page and the keyboard shortcut list have been updated.
Where to find recent documentation
Continuously updated man page (for command line usage), keyboard and
mouse shortcut list, tutorials and translation statistics for the
various parts of the Inkscape project are available on the inkscape.org
website:
• Man page
  • Keyboard shortcuts
  • Tutorials
  • Translation statistics for Inkscape 0.92 series / development branch
Tutorials, as always, are also included with your Inkscape installation.
Contributing to documentation and documentation translation
Contributions to the documentation translations, as well as improvements
to its contents, are welcome at the inkscape-docs repository.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                             Known issues                             |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
• DPI Change: known issues with 'Scale elements' option
    (Bugs: 1653230,1653236,1654342,1654796,1654880,1654903,1655005,1655053,1660228) 
  • DPI Change: Default grids in documents created with Inkscape 0.91 don't
    scale correctly.
    (Bug #1653893)
  • Line height: Changing "baseline spacing" stops working.
    (Bug #1707808)
  • Renderer: Artifacts in Gaussian blur effects with default quality settings.
    (Bug #1656383)
  • Node editor: Deselecting selected nodes of complex paths takes a long time.
    (Bug #1652100)
  • Performance: Using the objects dialog at least once in your Inkscape
    session slows down actions such as duplicate and delete for files
    with many objects.
    (Bug #1431274)

For information on prior releases, please see:
http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Inkscape

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