Help wanted

Help Wanted

This page lists easy, entry-level type tasks where help is needed. These tasks focus on non-coding, or light-coding activities that are desperately needed right now.

If you complete one of these tasks, please mark it (DONE) with your name (so we know who to give thanks to!) If you discover other tasks that you think others could do, please list them here.

Inkscape Planning

One of Inkscape's secrets to success is that we plan our work out, track tasks carefully, and work to keep all the todo lists trim and under control. Obviously, no coding experience is needed here. You'll need to have an eye for order, and it helps to know a bit about what's going on with Inkscape development but that isn't required.

• Update the Inkscape Roadmap - Compare what's listed there with what's been recently added to the release notes, and to recently closed Feature Requests and Bugs in the Inkscape Tracker. Mark things done in the roadmap as appropriate (and indicate who did them).
• Find more tasks to add to HelpWanted
• Update Tracker Items - See that page for details. Inkscape prides itself in keeping good track of bugs, features, and patches. No coding ability is required. This is an excellent way to help keep Inkscape chugging along. In particular:
  • The low priority bugs (level 3) should be reviewed. Some may be fixed by now, others may be out of date or irrelevant.
  • Try recreating the new bugs (those at level 5). Add a comment whether you can or cannot recreate them.
  • Search for duplicate or redundant feature requests, and mark the dupes.
• Go through NewFeatureProposals and pull in ideas from the Feature Request task tracker. Add more details (be creative!) to expand and unify the ideas. Sketch out some mockups if you so desire. Add a comment to the Feature Request with a pointer to the wiki page that discusses it.

Wiki Updating

The inkscape wiki is always in need of editing and maintenance. Inkscape depends on its community (that's you!) to keep the wiki organized and useful.

Items in need of updating:

• Ensure the formatting of different wiki pages is consistent. Make sure each page has a title, uses wiki syntax, etc.
• Search for spam. This is easy, take a look at Recent Changes, review what people have posted, delete any spam and replace it with {{Template:Spam}}. It is easy for admins to find and delete pages with this template: they are in Category:For deletion.
• Remove useless pages. There are a few too many links on the main wiki page, so trimming will help reduce the clutter. Move pages to WikiAttic or move their contents into more useful sections.
  • InkscapePopularity - appears abandoned and unfinished—maybe combine with another page?
  • Free Desktop Graphic Suite - seems abandoned and unfinished
  • AccessibleGraphics
  • ModalInterfaces - maybe fold the basic ideas into DeveloperManual?
  • TextUsability - maybe should be moved into the Roadmap?
  • KeyboardShortcuts / KeyboardShortcutsToDo / KeyboardProfiles - maybe combine all of these? Docco seems to have been moved elsewhere
• Create a nicely laid out Inkscape Developer Wiki area
  • Move the items that are extremely specific to Inkscape development into it. Don't move everything in the Developer Documentation section, though, as some of that is useful to users that are simply trying to troubleshoot problems. Items to move:
    • DeveloperManual
    • WorkingWithCVS
    • HandlingPreferences
    • AddSPObject
    • ReprListeners
    • InkscapeJanitors
    • Coding Style Discussion
    • FileTypes
    • Icons
    • InkscapeColor
    • PrintingSubsystem
    • SVG Tiny Compliance
    • CSS Support
    • TranslationInformation
    • ObjectManager
    • DialogsReorganization
    • Statusbar API
    • SubsystemRearchitecture
    • GtkMMification
    • PathRepresentaiton
    • Cairoification
    • ScribusInteroperability
    • Animation-(Timeline)
    • NewFeatureProposals
    • ExtensionArchitectureProposals
  • Distinguish between development ideas/proposals, plans/specs, and documentation/techniques
  • Add other useful links for reference documentation on topics of relevance to Inkscape development
    • OpenVG
    • OpenDocument
• Flesh out the DeveloperManual - we want to expand this into something that will provide a useful reference for new (and old!) developers.
  • Pull in ErrorsAndWarnings, DebuggingTips, HandlingPreferences, AddSPObject, ReprListeners
  • Look through other wiki pages for docs that really should be included in the DeveloperManual and move them there.
  • Browse through the Inkscape-devel mailing list for development tips/tricks/suggestions to add
  • Draw some diagrams or relevant pictures to include in the manual, to help break things up
  • Create a Table of Contents
  • Review and update the docs to more accurately match the state of the codebase
  • Skim through the Inkscape codebase for comments worth adding to the DeveloperManual

Completed items: (historical record)

• Merge ApplicationIcons and Icons. Also looks like these need editing and update in general. Merge Done —GigaClon 09:35, 21 June 2006 (PDT)
• Remove useless pages. There's a bit too many links on the main wiki page, so trimming will help reduce the clutter. Move pages to WikiAttic or move their contents into more useful sections.
  • CPlusPlus / Pangoification - these are both done, the pages aren't really useful anymore. Done —GigaClon 07:45, 18 June 2006 (PDT)

Inkscape Promotion

Believe it or not, there are still people in the world who don't know about Inkscape. Your job is to fix this! Here are some ideas for helping to spread the word about Inkscape:

• Update InkscapeFeatures - Review recent changes to Release notes and make sure InkscapeFeatures capture all the major features we've got.
• Contact magazine publishers and ask that they include Inkscape coverage and/or copies of Inkscape in their magazine CDs

Inkscape Documentation

Inkscape users love having new tutorials, guides, and references.

• Help author, edit, translate, and review tutorials
• Join the Inkscape Manual team. This aims to compile a complete reference, so if writing Wikipedia articles appeals to you, you'll love this!
• Write more content for the website or wiki
• Get articles published about Inkscape on FootNotes, DeviantArt, FreshMeat, or other community sites

Determining Dependencies

Some of our core dependencies such as glib and GTK+ do not have explicit listings of minimum versions needed. Going through the API docs and code looking for what we do require might not require much coding expertise, but can help benefit many users.

Lend a hand with Tracking Dependencies

Making Screenshots

For a user, screenshots are perhaps the most important resource at inkscape.org. It's what most people look at first: they want pretty pictures.

Please see the MakingScreenshots page for fuller explanation of this topic and instructions on how to make screenshots and submit them to the gallery.

Inkscape Janitors

If you can code (even if you're new to coding), check out InkscapeJanitors for specific coding requests. Code it up, create a patch, and upload it to the patch tracker. Easy!

About Screen Submissions

Occasionally Inkscape asks talented artists to submit their art to the project to be used in the upcoming release's About screen. Some excellent artwork has been contributed for past versions. See AboutScreen for more information.