Announcement to Sodipodi

Announcement to Sodipodi Project of the Inkscape Project

Nathan, mental, Ted and myself have decided to embark on our own direction with the Sodipodi codebase. We have attempted to do this as part of the Sodipodi project, but we believe we need to try out a new project structure to have the freedom to be able to explore some approaches radically different from Sodipodi.

We have recently reworked the Sodipodi codebase to build with a C++ compiler and renamed it 'Inkscape'. We have also set up a project on Sourceforge and established a new website at http://www.inkscape.org.

Our goal is the creation of a fully SVG-compliant 2D graphics editor:

  * Full SVG (plus XML, CSS2) compliance
  * Core written in C++
  * Gtk-based user interface following the standards set out in the GNOME HIG
  * Emphasis on a small core plus modular extensions for features (a la Mozilla Firebird)
  * Open, community-oriented development processes that welcomes experimentation
  * Baseline is the Sodipodi-Hydra codebase
  * Removal of dead code

We are aiming specifically for a general purpose XML/SVG graphics editor, and as a consequence will emphasize features that tend to fall outside the Sodipodi target userbase. We would like to welcome anyone who'd like to do some experimentation to participate with us. Subscribe at http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-devel

We also intend to seek use of third-party libraries in preference to custom code (where reasonable); specifically, we are exploring Cairo (formerly Xr), libcroco, Pango, the core Gtk widgets, but also other existing and widespread facilities. The extension architecture is partly intended to minimize library dependencies in the core.

-- Bryce