
Sodipodi Release News
---------------------
Please see the Sodipodi website for the latest news about the project,
or TODO and ChangeLog for details about specific releases.

Old News
--------
25. Novemeber 2002
Sodipodi version 0.28

There is now a way to specify custom freetype2-readable fonts
for sodipodi, bypassing gnome-print font database.
The font description file is:

  $HOME/.sodipodi/private-fonts

And its syntax is really simple:

  font_file_full_path[: face number in ttc], Font Full Name, Font Family Name

# at the beginning of line introduces comment line. Empty lines
are ignored. Whitespace around names is cut off.

Most importantly, if you have font file with proper vertical metrics,
using it directly aloows sodipodi to use correct metrics. Otherwise
it synthesizes vertical metrics by centering visible glyph horizontally
at baseline, what is not always correct.

Also all fonts are now accessible from unicode private plane, in addition
to proper unicode values. For certain fonts (like custom symbols without
unicode mapping), this is the only way to access glyphs.

Code points are assigned sequentially to glyphs:

U+e000 - glyph 0
U+e001 - glyph 1

Starting from previous release there is also 'unicode mode' in text
tool (although it has no visible indication).

Press Ctrl-U to enter unicode mode

type 4-digit code point value(s)

Press Ctr-U to leave unicode mode



2001/09/27 Version 0.24

This experimental release. While many old bugs have actualy been fixed,
most probably countless new have been introduced. GUI is somewhat
messed up, with older and newer versions present at the same time.

Linear gradients work now. OK - to some extent. Only objectBoundingBox
unit system is supported, and there are known artefacts in printing
and bitmap export. Still, if you follow some guidelines, you should
be able to use them:
- If opening non-sodipodi SVG, either leave old gradients intact
  entirely, or create fresh new ones, if you want to edit them.
- Always edit gradient of single object at a time. Do not try to
  modify gradient of group of objects at the same time.
- If you want to export or print gradiented text, better convert
  it to curves before.

There have been lot of work on internals. Not much visible, except
numerous bugs. Still, there is now near-complete asynchronous
notifiaction system, that has been used to build dynamic dialogs
- look at new experimental fill/gradient dialog for example.
Hopefully there will be more these in future.

Mitsuru contributed dynadraw-filtered drawing tool. Although
it does currently only simple lines, it should emerge into
full-featured XInput (read Wacom tablets) calligraphic tool.

Sodipodi now saves emergency backups on segfault. So it would
be good idea, to check $HOME/.sodipodi, $HOME or $TMP time-to-time,
or you will run out of disk space. Also - although it should
save files 99.9% correctly, unless there is grave memory corruption,
it does not mean these files do not cause the same segfault again,
if opened. But it helps a lot for crashes in UI system.

Frank contributed neat enhanced knots. I.e. these small handles,
used for scaling, node editing etc. can now have all kinds
of fancy shapes, and handle X cursor by thmselves as well.

I re-borrowed Raph SVG path code from librsvg (the old one
came from Gill). The new code parses SVG files exported from
Illustrator the right way - so you can now open and edit
most Nautilus SVG icons.

UI-wise there are neat color slider widgets, that should give
a little better user experience than plain Gtk sliders. Among
composite widgets there is CMYK color selector, but it is mainly
placeholder - both display and printing go through RGB anyways.

Frank also did near-complete snappoints implementation, so
guidelines and grid are quite useful now.

Francis contributed several bugfixes and also Base64 inline image
support.

There is global opacity setting implemented. It can currently only
be acessed from context menu. Same stands for object sensitivity.
Hint - to select insensitive objects, use rubberband or Shift-click.

Many other people have contributed to sodipodi. Big thanks to
everybody!

2001/09/27 Multiple skipped versions

Hmm... Seems that I have omitted some versions

2000/10/09 Version 0.20

This release is intended to test the whole thing out before Gnome 1.4 release
later this year.
We have completely new interface, GnomeMDI is gnome, bonobo embeddable works in
limited way, there are guidelines, grid and countless other improvements.

2000/05/04 Version 0.18

This is still development release. Many bugs, some of whose are very nasty
memory corrupting ones are lurking around.
Undo/Redo now basically work. Undo is unlimited, so you are encouraged to
test, how long it takes to fill all memory...
There are also some minor improvements, such as (preliminary) way to print
semi-transparent pixmaps.

2000/28/03 Version 0.17

Sodipodi home is now http://sodipodi.sourceforge.net/
Started building regular tarballs and RPMs
Created icon & desktop entry
etc. etc.

2000/14/01 Version 0.16

Started hacking with GnomeMDI. You can fire up fill & stroke dialogs again
and these even update itself, if active view changes.

2000/09/01 Version 0.16

Imported to CVS.
Added multiple files / multiple views support. As a result, most things
do not work any more, but you can experiment with load/save/print/import,
group/ungroup, delete/duplicate, transforming, node editing, drawing,
rects, ellipses and text. Sometimes it does not crash.

30.12.1999 Node editing now works!
