joel@...1709... wrote:

Hi, Given that I'm pretty new to the Inkscape developement world, I had a couple questions.

The first is this: what hurdles stand between Inkscape today, and v1.0?

Better SVG Compliance. I believe the last discussion put it at SVG Tiny 1.1 being fully supported. As great as Inkscape is in the general vector realm, we are first and foremost (specifically) an SVG editor. I also recall there being goals for falling below a certain amount of bugs or something along those lines.

If you're roughly on a 6 month release cycle, that puts v1.0 at least 5 years away!

Surely that's not right?

The above addresses this. If we had full support tomorrow (which won't happen), the next release could be targeted 1.0.

I worry that until Inkscape gets to >v1.0 it will be seen as "experimental" and "unstable" by many. I worry that until 1.0, the app will languish, not attracting the user base or developer base it deserves.. Companies won't trust it, and Ubuntu probably won't bundle it for example.

Being with the project for a few years, I can tell you it's seen nothing but steady growth and adoption. It seems that once people understand why it's not "1.0", they get past the superficial numbering. Honestly, if people choose software based on version number, they're not properly evaluating all candidates. That said, if people view Inkscape as a general purpose vector editor and not an SVG editor, if we hit 1.0 without full color management support and rockstar pdf output, things would look really bad to them.

Oh and as for Ubuntu bundling it... two of our core devs are Ubuntu developers, so if we will ever stand a chance, it probably lies more with their powers of persuasion (and user demand) than a superficial number. ;) For the record, the first thing that Ubuntu utilizes on your computer at startup (GRUB) is only 0.97, or rythmbox which is a default install is at 0.11, etc... so I don't think numbers matter that much.

So... if you want to get things moving toward 1.0 you can either polish up the rough edges you see, or work toward SVG Tiny compliance. Either way, it moves Inkscape forward. :)

-Josh

P.S. I'm sure others will elaborate more and make me look like a fool. ;)

joel@...1709... wrote:

Hi, Given that I'm pretty new to the Inkscape developement world, I had a couple questions.

The first is this: what hurdles stand between Inkscape today, and v1.0? I love using it, and I've now completely migrated over from CorelDRAW. I'm really keen to see Inkscape develop and become more and more popular, for a couple of reasons: 1. it's good for the world, and 2. more users mean more developers which means more features/innovation more quickly - which is good for me!

v0.45.1 is great, and v0.46 will be even greater. I'm now happy to use Inkscape for most of my design work. It's not perfect - it's a bit rough around the edges, but in general it does the job pretty well. From my point of view, the app needs a bit of polishing here and there to improve slickness, but generally it's in pretty good shape. However, reading the roadmap it says that we're at least 11 releases away from v1.0. If you're roughly on a 6 month release cycle, that puts v1.0 at least 5 years away!

Surely that's not right?

I worry that until Inkscape gets to >v1.0 it will be seen as "experimental" and "unstable" by many. I worry that until 1.0, the app will languish, not attracting the user base or developer base it deserves. Companies won't trust it, and Ubuntu probably won't bundle it for example.

So to rephrase my question: how many of the tasks in the roadmap are *truly* necessary? Maybe I'm being niéve, but surely inkscape doesn't have to be all things to all men - even at 1.0. Many of the ideas seem tantalysing; I can't wait. But surely we need to sort between "must have" and "nice to have". We can add the "nice to haves" into v1.1, or v2.0 just fine, no?

I'll ask my second question in a second e-mail.

1.0 is just an arbitrary number. We could take a vote and call Inkscape 1.0 right now. But it wouldn't mean anything.

bob