Before I learned how to compile CVS, my major concern was "How can I keep the stable version and CVS installed at the same time on linux." This was, of course, no trouble because the stable version was installed to /usr/bin/ and the CVS version was installed to /usr/local/bin/. The reason I had worried was the autopackage nightly builds. When I installed an autopackage it installed in the place of the stable version.

Having both versions has been a good experience. It is a safety net. If a old feature breaks in CVS it is likely I can still use that feature in the stable version. Best of all I can do this without having to revert to an earlier version by uninstalling and reinstalling.

As long as I was pestering Mike Hearn with my naive questions about building the autopackage, I decided to ask him if there was a way the packaging system could handle the issue and give users the ability to keep side-by-side installs. Mike suggested that the best solution might be to build a different executable for CVS i.e. inkscape-cvs instead of inkscape. This sounds reasonable to me. For instance, the sylpheed mail client has a sister project that builds the experimental sylpheed-claws version.

The usability of CVS is definately one of Inkscape's strengths. I think the smaller the barrier between new users and CVS the better.

Comments?

Aaron Spike