Inkscape project formed

We've actually talked about it. At this point we're going to stick with C++ because most of the developers know it, and the tools are mature, but our intent is to allow plug-ins to be first class members of the program. I think this is the essence of C#, so Mono may be a good path in the future.

Having said that, I think it is important for us (the inkscape team) to really get a hold of the code first before we set off on a great quest into the great world of languages.

It will be easier to port from C++ to C#, I hope.

njh

checkout the nightly builds, there is some layers functionality already.
the backend was ready for 0.39 but the frontend has been taking longer than expected.
Inkscape 0.40 will definately include some new Layers functionality and it is one of the things they are working hard to get working nicely for the release

I asked a very similar question about why use layers to the Dia project and here is one of the responses

The ability to be able to easily hide, move and remove layers is certainly a factor that could be mitigated by a more powerful tree view of the document but at the very least there are users who find it convenient so no vector program should remove Layers without adding a bettter alternative

http://www.mail-archive.com/dia-list@gnome.org/msg05072.html

Inkscape uses a Single Document Interface (SDI) like Gnumeric and Abiword. Inkscape has a document menu bar.
Sodipodi uses a Controlled Single Document Interface (CSDI) like the gimp. Sodipodi has everything in a right click menu.

Talking only a user and not getting into compiling and developing Inkscape those are the main differences.

Inkscape has added Boolean Operators allowing you to add and subtract shapes from each other but I believe (but I'm not sure) Sodipodi has also added that functionality. (Since I stopped using Sodipodi it is difficult to say what features it has also added since the split)

I think a wiser move would be to target the largest possible audience and look to Illustrator and Corel Draw first (and Gimp second) and they imply they are going in this direction on their website.

There are still many artists who use very old versions of Illustrator and Corel Draw so as to get the very most out of cheap hardware and hopefully that is a market that InkScape can soon grab.

Jasc Web Draw is adequate but if InkScape can provide a consumer friendly user interface it will serve as a big kick in the Pants for Jasc and hopefully force them to improve their low budget Vector Graphics toy.

...would be much better written in python...

Or Ruby.

so GTK and GNOME where written in C against the authors own choice?

Writing OO code in C is possible but a pain. It is much easier with C++. I believe that the excellent program sketch went the python route but it has been stalled for a long time.

In any case writing a large Open Source GUI program is a long term project for the not-faint-of-heart. We'll see how they turn out with time.

Martin

RedHat Linux is now Fedora Linux. And the gtkmm rpms for that are already available. Problem solved.

Lauris wrote Sodipodi in quite an object oriented style of C.

I've not looked at the code in depth but the menus and accellerator code was distinctly different from any other GTK application I've seen.

I hope the two projects are on good terms and that this was an amicable fork. It would be a terrible shame if plugins were incompatible, even the need to recompile plugins for both would be a significant burden on the already overworked packagers of most linux distributions.

A solid stable plugin ABI and API would benfit both projects, I hope they can set any differences aside and ensure that happens.

If switching to C++ helps them to bring in more developers and gain momentum and ultimately give end users more Gnu Free Software then I'm all for it, but as with any fork I urge them to avoid duplication of effort whenever possible.