X-Git-Url: https://git.tokkee.org/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=NEWS;h=043d2c10ffd78f8b7fb147e179676353d08987e8;hb=bd7bd2319ce1940e8cdba8becbecf5af45800959;hp=5c4070c5bd090277e5a6b85cfd385df2ab6fbb32;hpb=6b15695578f07a3f72c4c9475c1a261a3021472a;p=inkscape.git diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS index 5c4070c5b..043d2c10f 100644 --- a/NEWS +++ b/NEWS @@ -1,439 +1 @@ - Release Notes - Inkscape 0.43 - -In brief - - The focus of this release is on the exciting new features sponsored by - Google via their Summer of Code program. However, we have quite a bunch of - other stuff too. Here are the highlights: - - * Connectors: A new Connector tool implements creation, editing, and - autorouting (object-avoiding) of connector lines between objects. - Indispensable for diagramming. (A Google SoC project.) - * Inkboard collaborative editing: You can now connect to other Inkscape - users over the Net and edit a shared document together, watching - others' changes and making yours! (A Google SoC project.) - * Pressure and tilt sensitivity: the Calligraphy tool can now use a - tablet pen with pressure/tilt support to vary the width and angle of - the calligraphic stroke. - * Better node editing: You can freely drag/bend/stretch a Bezier curve - by any point (not only by a node), as well as add a new node at any - point on the curve. - * New extensions for envelope distortion, whirling, and adding nodes. - * Improved precision, expanded limits, many usability improvements and - bugfixes. - - Tavmjong Bah has updated his online book, A Guide to Inkscape - (http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/index.php), to cover - the Inkscape 0.43 features. This guide is not included with the Inkscape - release. Users are encouraged to read the guide in addition to these - release notes and the help included with Inkscape. - -Connectors - - * Inkscape now includes preliminary support for connectors. Connectors - are lines drawn between objects, that stay connected to the objects as - these objects are manipulated. Any object may have a "connector-avoid" - property, which, when set, causes connectors to automatically route - around the object. - - * The Connector tool (Ctrl+F2 or the o key) is a new way of creating and - rerouting connectors, as well as marking objects "avoided" for the - purpose of routing connectors. - - * A new connector can be drawn by clicking and dragging from any - point on the canvas. The connector is finalized when the mouse is - released. Connectors can also be created with two clicks, rather - than click-and-drag, if this is preferred. In this case, click once - on an empty point on the canvas to begin drawing the connector, - then move the mouse to the new connector's target point and then - click again to finalize the connector. Single clicking on a canvas - object selects/deselects that object, just as in other tools. - - * Connection point handles are shown while the mouse cursor is - hovering over a non-connector object in the connector tool. - Currently they are shown only at the center of objects. When - creating a connector, if the connector is started or ended over a - connection point then the connector will be attached to that - object. From then on the connector will be automatically rerouted - whenever the attached object is moved. - - * Connectors attached to objects are currently drawn to the bounding - box of those objects. It is planned that they will be drawn instead - to the edges of objects. - - * A selected connector will show two endpoint handles. By clicking - and dragging these, the connector can be rerouted and - attached/detached from objects. - - * The Make connectors avoid selected objects button marks all objects - in the selection as "avoided", causing all current and future - connectors to automatically avoid these objects. - - * The Make connectors ignore selected objects button marks all - objects in the selection as "ignored", causing all current and - future connectors to completely ignore these objects. This is the - default for all canvas items, i.e., no objects are automatically - routed around by default. - -Inkboard - - A first release of the Inkboard collaborative editing system (also known - as a "white board") is present in this version of Inkscape. - - * Inkboard must be enabled at compile time by passing --enable-inkboard - to the configure script: Inkboard has known bugs, and may present - security issues. - - * Inkboard uses the XMPP (http://www.xmpp.org/) protocol (used by Jabber - (http://www.jabber.org/)) to link together Inkscape clients in a - shared document session. Therefore, if you have a Jabber account, you - can use Inkboard. (There are some exceptions, which are listed below - in the "Known issues" section.) Inkboard uses the Loudmouth - (http://loudmouth.imendio.org/) library for Jabber connectivity; - versions 0.17.2 and above of the Loudmouth library are known to work. - - * Inkboard sessions may occur between two users or a group of users in a - chatroom setting. - - Inkboard usage - - * You must first connect to a Jabber server before sharing a document. - To do this, go to Whiteboard -> Connect to Jabber server. You will be - prompted to enter a server name, your username, and password. You may - specify a specific port to connect on, and whether or not you would - like to connect via SSL. - - * After connecting, you may establish a session with another user or a - chatroom. To connect to another user, go to Whiteboard -> Share with - user. Inkboard can import your Jabber contact list, and will present a - list of online contacts to you. You may select any contact in the - contact list, or enter a Jabber ID to connect to. - - * Similarly, you can establish a connection with a chatroom by going to - Whiteboard -> Share with chatroom. - - * If you are contacted by another user, Inkscape will present a dialog - telling you that you have received an invitation. The dialog contains - the Jabber ID of the user contacting you, and offers you three - choices: decline the invitation, accept the invitation, or accept the - invitation in a new window. - - * Inkboard can record a session's contents for playback at a later time. - - * If you are establishing a session, click the Write session file - checkbox in the share with user dialog to enable session - recording. You will need to provide the name of a file to which - the session contents can be written. - * If you are accepting a session invitation, click the Write - session file checkbox in the invitation dialog to enable session - recording. You will need to provide the name of a file to which - the session contents can be written. - * To play back a session, go to Whiteboard -> Open session file. - - * The Whiteboard -> Dump XML tracker menu item is intended for debugging - purposes only. - -Pressure and tilt sensitivity - - Support for extended input devices has been added. - - * The Calligraphy tool now has optional pressure and tilt support from - an input device such as a tablet. Pressure can be used to alter the - width of the pen and tilt can be used to alter the angle of the pen's - nib. - - * A standard input device dialog has been added (in File menu). Input - device settings are saved to and loaded from the preferences. - -Node tool - - * Clicking on a selected path selects the two nodes closest to the click - point. Shift+click adds or removes these two nodes to the node - selection (when only one path is selected; otherwise Shift+click works - as in Selector). - - * Double click or Ctrl+Alt+click anywhere on the selected path (even if - it is under other objects) creates a new node at the click point, - without changing the shape of the path. (Previously, you could only - add a node in the middle of a segment by using a toolbar button.) - - * You can now edit the selected path (even if it's under other objects) - by dragging any curve point, not only node(s) as before. In many cases - it's a much more convenient way to reshape paths than anything - available before. When you drag a curve close enough to one of the - nodes, only that node's handle(s) are affected; if you drag a point - midway between two nodes, both nodes' handles are adjusted. - - * When mouse is over a draggable path, the cursor is changed to - include a hand. - - * As in Selector, if you press Shift before starting to drag, you always - get a node selection rubberband rectangle (even if you start on a path - but not a node!). - - * After duplicating (Shift+D) an endnode, the selected node is always - the new endnode, so you can move it at once. - - * Selected nodes are displayed a little larger than non-selected ones. - -Extensions - - * Add Nodes: Adds nodes to the selected paths. Each segment of the - selected path is subdivided into ceil(Length/Max) equal length - segments. Lengths are measured in SVG User Units calculated from the - path data and does not take into account any transforms. - - * Whirl: Twists the selected paths around the specified center point. - - * Summer's Night: Linearly distorts a path into the destination - quadrilateral. The destination quadrilateral is specified by a four - node path (closed or not). To use, draw and position a four node path. - Select the four node path first and then add to selection the path you - wish to distort. The original position of the four nodes is considered - to be clockwise around the bounding box of the path to distort - beginning in the upper left corner. - - * The Wavy extension is renamed to Function Plotter and got many fixes - and improvements. Importantly, now you don't have to provide an - analytic formula for the derivative; instead, check the "Calculate the - first derivative numerically" checkbox and it will itself calculate - the angle at each node. In the function/derivative formulas, you can - use functions from the math (http://docs.python.org/lib/module-math.html) - and random (http://docs.python.org/lib/module-random.html) Python - modules. As before, you need to have a rectangle selected before calling - this extension. - - * Development continues on SVGSlice but it has not yet been fully - integrated into Inkscape. Please visit Digital Unleashed - (http://www.digitalunleashed.com/giving.php) for details and downloads. - -More new functionality - - * A separate project, the Open Clip Art Library Browser provides an easy - way to browse local and remote clipart collections and insert clipart - into Inkscape. Please visit - http://www.python.org/pypi/clipartbrowser/0.41 for details and - downloads. (A Google SoC project.) - - * A separate utility has been developed to convert between DXF and SVG - formats. Please visit http://sourceforge.net/projects/dxf-svg-convert - for details and downloads. (A Google SoC project.) - - * Improved support for viewBox: If the root element of your - document has width/height attributes set in percentage units and - there's a viewBox on that element, then: - - * The canvas size is set to the value of the viewBox attribute. - * Changing the canvas size in Document Preferences sets the - viewBox, without touching the width/height values. - - This does not affect regular documents created in Inkscape, but - makes it easier to edit other SVG files that use viewBox. - - * The new command line parameter, --export-area-snap, used with bitmap - export to snap the export area outwards to the nearest integer SVG - user unit (px) values. If you are using the default export resolution - of 90dpi and your graphics are pixel-snapped to minimize antialiasing, - this switch allows you to preserve this alignment even if you are - exporting an area (for example, with --export-id or - --export-area-drawing) which is itself not pixel-aligned. - - * When saving as Postscript, you now have the option to convert or not - convert texts to paths (previously only available for EPS export). - -Interface and usability - - * The Icon Preview dialog has been improved. A toggle has been added to - switch between previewing the entire document or just the current - selection. A larger 128x128 size has been added to the defaults. The - sizes are now read from the preferences file and can be customized. - - * Rectangles and ellipses now use different handle shapes, so it's much - easier to see which handle does what. The two square handles change - the size of the object, while the two round handles adjust the - rounding corners (in rectangles) and arc/segment ends (in ellipses). - - * The controls for the Rectangle tool now include W and H fields for - setting the width/height of selected rectangle(s) numerically. - - * In the controls of Rectangle and Ellipse tools, the "Not rounded" and - "Make whole" buttons are now grayed out when the selected object - cannot use the corresponding function (i.e. when a rectangle is - already not rounded and the ellipse is already whole, which are the - defaults). - - * When editing text with the Text tool, the keypad + and - keys type the - corresponding characters if NumLock is on (otherwise they zoom in and - out as before). (Still does not work on Windows.) - - * In the Text tool, Ctrl+Up and Ctrl+Down now move one paragraph up or - down correspondingly. - - * The Calligraphic tool, in addition to the Ctrl+F6 shortcut, has a new - one-letter shortcut, `c'. - - * The Pen, Pencil, and Calligraphy tools finally have mouse cursors of - their own. - - * The canvas width/height fields in Document Preferences are never - grayed out. Instead, the menu of the canvas sizes scrolls itself to - "Custom" or to an appropriate standard size as you edit width/height. - - * Rectangle editing handles now snap to grid/guides (snapping for other - shapes' handles is expected to come in subsequent releases). - - * The pattern move handle is restricted to horizontal/vertical when Ctrl - is pressed. - - * In the Selector, dragging the rotation center handle snaps to the - edges and central axes of the selection's bounding box. - - * In the Pen tool, while you are drawing a path, the statusbar displays - the distance and angle of the current mouse point from the last - created node of the path. This makes it easy to create a path from the - given lengths and angles of linear segments. When you are dragging to - create a curve handle, the statusbar also displays the length and the - angle of the handle. - - * A new preference option, Compass-like angle display (in the Steps - tab), allows you to have absolute angles specified in a compass - notation (0 at north, 0 to 360 range, increasing clockwise) instead of - the default trigonometric notation (0 at east, -180 to 180 range, - increasing counterclockwise). This affects the statusbar angle display - for path segments and the handles in Pen and Node tools. - - * The Pen and Pencil tools now display helpful statusbar hints when the - mouse is over one of the end anchors of the selected path. - - * The precision of most editable length fields is increased from 0.01 to - 0.001. - - * The minimum zoom is extended from 4% to 1%. - - * Work has begun on menu sensitivity and configurability, but has been - disabled in the release. - -Packaging, documentation, examples - - * The windows installer has now a modular structure that allows the - selection of separate features such as examples, tutorials, or - translations. All options are supported for a silent installation. - * Windows packages now contain the release notes (NEWS file), authors - and translators lists, the README file, the GPL and the LGPL license - files. - * The Inkscape man page is updated with additional examples. - * The About dialog now more closely resembles the stock Gtk About - dialog. A full list of authors and translators, as well as the license - are now viewable. - -Translations - - * The MacOS X package now includes interface translations and reads the - user language setting, as specified in System Preferences, to use the - corresponding translation language. - * Many interface and tutorial translations have been updated. - -Important bugfixes - - * A systematic error when scaling objects with stroke via the Selector - controls panel (W and H fields) is fixed. - * In stroke dash patterns in CSS, comma separators were erroneously - replaced by spaces upon writing the document. For now, Inkscape will - still be capable of reading both space-separated and comma-separated - lists (for compatibility with old files), but it now always writes - correct comma-separated lists on output. - * Due to a bug, Inkscape tended to replace relative paths to embedded - images by absolute, which made them fail after moving a document to - another computer; this is fixed. - * The precision of most boolean operations and offsets is improved, - especially noticeably for small paths. - * In text on path, in some cases letters were distributed unevenly along - a curve; this is now fixed. - * Searching by text in the Find dialog (Ctrl+F) was broken, now fixed. - * Some of the stock markers were missing in the marker menus in the Fill - & Stroke dialog. - * The bounding box of a stroke with markers now includes the markers. - -Internal progress - - * Source documentation: the big goal is to have a brief description for - classes and most functions in every source file; this now holds for - more than 100 files of the 1350 files in the source code. The doxygen - index file now shows many useful links to external documentation and a - categorization of main directory files which should be useful for - beginners in particular. - * Removed trailing fractional zeros in SVG for cleaner and more compact - markup. - * C++ Encapsulation: the View class hierarchy has been reimplemented in - C++, after separating the widget classes from each class. The number - of dependencies on the central file desktop.h (about 100) was reduced - by half. - -Known issues - - Windows 95/98/ME support - - * Due to issues in GTK 2.8 beyond our control this version of Inkscape - will not work on Windows 95/98/ME. Please do not send us crash reports - from those platforms. We hope to be able to resume support for these - platforms in the future, but no specific committments can be made at - this point. - - Problems on Linux under KDE - - * SuSE, Fedora Core 4: Inkscape and other GTK programs are known to - crash if the KDE Baghira theme and the package gtk_qt_engine are - installed. If you experience Inkscape crashes on KDE, please try to - install a different theme from Baghira, or uninstall the gtk_qt_engine - package from your system. - * Kubuntu: For similar reasons, Inkscape can crash on Kubuntu Breezy - when, at the same time, the gtk2-engines-smooth package is installed. - Removing it resolves the problem. Both problems also affect older - versions of Inkscape. - - Pressure and tilt sensitivity - - * Pressure and tilt sensitivity do not currently work on MacOS X, due to - a limitation of the MacOS X version of X11. - * There are known issues with the current version of the X.org server - not releasing events on extended devices that use pressure - sensitivity. What that translates to is you can start a stroke, but - when you lift your pen, the stroke won't end (and will just continue - when you put your pen back on the tablet). This seem to be linked to - the usage of /dev/psaux for the mouse instead of /dev/input/mouseXX, - see http://linuxwacom.sourceforge.net/index.php/howto/mouse1) - * The current version of GTK for Windows has a bug that affects tilt - sensitivity. - - Inkboard - - * Imported bitmaps are not transmitted to other users in a whiteboard - session. - * At present, Inkboard relies on Loudmouth - (http://loudmouth.imendio.org/) to provide Jabber connectivity, - which means that it is limited to Linux builds of Inkscape. - Inkboard is currently being redesigned to use a cross-platform - Jabber client; this redesign will be present in a future release. - * Inkboard cannot yet connect to Google Talk clients. This will be - remedied in a future release. (The reason is because it expects the - "server" portion of a Jabber ID to be the same as the server that it - contacts, which is not the case for the Google Talk network.) - * Inkboard's handling of concurrent modifications is still very rough. - Future releases will make this more robust. - - See http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=93438&atid=604306 for a - full list of known issues. If you find a bug not listed here, then please - report the bug: see instructions at http://inkscape.org/report_bugs.php - (the Report Bugs link from http://inkscape.org/). - -Previous releases - - * ReleaseNotes042 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes042) - * ReleaseNotes041 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes041) - * ReleaseNotes040 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes040) - * ReleaseNotes039 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes039) - * ReleaseNotes038 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes038) - * ReleaseNotes037 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes037) - * ReleaseNotes036 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes036) - * ReleaseNotes035 (http://inkscape.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?ReleaseNotes035) +Inkscape 0.48 pre-release. More here later.