RE: [XaraXtreme-dev] Further direction/Roadmap

["Charles Moir" <CharlesM@xxxxxxxx>]

Thomas said:
> I was wondering if there 
> was some kind of Roadmap describing the future path of the 
> Linux/BSD/UNIXish and MacOSX Version in respect to the 
> windows version once the 1.0 release is reached. Will they 
> evolve together?

That's the goal. We want to have one main source tree for the project on
all platforms. But as you probably know the commercial version includes
components that are not or we cannot open source, such as PDF export,
Pantone etc so we will always maintain a private commercial version, but
the goal is that the main source tree will be the same. We're not there
yet.

> Will it be possible to compile the source 
> version on windows as well?

Our priority is to get Linux and MacOSX version working. We don't need a
Windows version yet because we already have Windows versions working
from 'the old' source. I suspect there's very considerable work
remaining to be done to get the current source base to the slick,
polished standard of the existing Windows version. If, for example, we
focus on the Mac version after Linux, then it might be very long time
before the current Windows version is built from the same source code.
Where we put our focus once the Linux 1.0 has been reached simply hasn't
been decided yet.

> Will there be commercial 
> offerings of the Linux/Mac Versions including the non-free 
> parts currently in Windows Xtreme?

Yes we might offer commercial version for Linux and Mac that would
include the non-free parts. E.g. with Pantone and our enhanced PDF
export. Depends on the demand and interest, but currently it looks
likely.

> What about versioning? 
> Somebody mentioned an Xtreme 3.0 tree earlier today. Will it 
> be multi-pages per document and including the text 
> formatting/margin code included in LX? I think this is one of 
> the 2 things keeping Xtreme from being a killer application. 
> The other being a not-so-perfect support for pre-press work 
> and CMYK, although this is constantly improving.

While the goal is a common codebase, the fact is that we can't wait
until XaraLX gets to a 1.0 level before we start working on other future
commercial Windows versions. So in fact right now we're in the
unsatisfactory position of maintaining both the old and new codebases.
So yes we are working on a new Xara Xtreme for Windows that includes new
features. Some of this work is being done on Xara LX codebase first and
then back ported to Windows version, some is being done on the 'old'
codebase and will be ported the other way. A far from ideal position but
during this transition phase to a common codebase, it looks unavoidable.

It's difficult for me to be very clear talking about future commercial
Windows versions because for sound commercial reasons, we can't reveal
too many details about what will be in future commercial versions (we'd
stop selling the current one if we did, and that we can't afford).

In summary, I can say
* The medium and long term goal is to have a common codebase so that new
features appearing will be available for all versions (excepting any
closed source bits that we can't release).
* The XaraLX 1.0 goal remains our priority right now which, as we've
said from the beginning is to get the Linux version to match the current
shipping Xara Xtreme for Windows.
* The Xara Picture Editor can't be ported, and so we plan at some point
to implement a replacement Photo tool in Xara LX. This will be new work.
* We are working on a new commercial version of Xara Xtreme for Windows,
simply because we, and our Windows users do not want to wait until we
have this common codebase. We're not going to reveal all of its
features, but you might get a hint as to what some of them may be by
work being done in the Xara LX codebase (i.e. some of them will be
appearing in Xara LX first).

As to a feature roadmap, we just pick ideas to work from the huge, I
mean vast 'wish list' of ideas generated by all the users, both
internally in Xara, and externally e.g.. from the TalkGraphics forums.
You've already mentioned at least three areas that are quite high on
most people's wish lists for Xara. But the great point of being open
source is that anyone can work on any feature they like, and that's
really why we're doing this, so that we will see an accelerated pace of
development and new features, as a result of it being open-source and
cross-platform.

Charles