Hey all,

This is where 0.48 as a "release" begins! This email will be a little redundant for developers, but will let users know what the current plan is. The next stage (Frost) kicks into gear at the beginning of March in case you were wondering.

For right now: *New feature development will focus on wrapping up. *We will identify "make check" issues (we need to make sure things are "friendly" for packaging). *We will run an About Screen contest on DeviantART (which I will announce within the next 24 hours and post all info to both lists). *Ensure that the Release Notes are at First Draft stage. This is primarily a developer task, however, if you are a user and follow development closely and have something to contribute in this area which we may have overlooked, such as fixed bugs, changes in functionality, etc. please contribute. *Update tutorials and other docs (we could use volunteers). Not joking, if you are an Inkscape user and have the misconception that the only way you can contribute is by code, you are missing out on one of the most important things for our users... documentation. If you have time to spare and some tips for others that you're willing to share, please let us know.

--- boring developer junk ---

I do want to request from developers... most "big" new stuff be committed by March 1st if possible (or shortly thereafter).

JonCruz: The swatch previews for "auto" swatches are starting to worry me given that they have not been working for quite a while now (since 0.47 dev cycle). The same goes for the method of editing color (gradient editor rather than F&S dialog). If you will not have time to address these before Freeze, please expect that I will request the feature is disabled again for this release at that time... I will also request that in 0.49 that you not re-enable it until you are looking to actively work on it.

Krzysztof: The new Node Tool is fantastic. I know you're actively working on it, but I do just want to make sure that you will be able to set aside a few hours here and there for bugfixing as there are still a number of bugs and features missing from previous releases.

Arcadie/Michael: The Connector Tool really is not consistent with the behavior of other tools. If it is not likely to be sorted out by Freeze, I will request that at least the tool controls button for "add connection point" be disabled, as it is not user friendly at this point.

Please know that I am not targeting people or criticizing their work. This is a schedule issue and our date of release was horribly far behind schedule for the past couple releases. We will just be sticking to release schedules much more strictly than we have previously, and if features aren't "bug-free"/complete enough to release on time... there's always next release! :) Besides, we're going to be in the trenches w/ 0.49 for a bit by what has been discussed so far.

Cheers, Josh