On 03-04-13 23:13, john Culleton wrote:

Will the latest version of Inkscape read and process all files created by earlier versions? If not what are the limitations on backwards compatibilty?

In general, Inkscape aims to be an SVG editor. In practice this means that at least the rendering of Inkscape-generated files should be the same across all SVG renderers (including any version of Inkscape). Apart from that we also have some functionality that is not strictly SVG, which might occasionally break, but obviously this is not intended.

I can think of only two real limitations on Inkscape's backwards compatibility:

1) A bug in an older version of Inkscape which is fixed in a newer version. (We usually do not jump through hoops to keep bugs around.)

2) Complete overhaul of a tool or other Inkscape-specific functionality (there have been some issues with the 3D tool, as well as Inkscape's coordinate system as it is exposed to the user, for example).

Typically these things should not stop you from editing a file, but might cause some (hopefully slight) inconveniences.