Pending patches for Dia 0.98 ?

[Hans Breuer <hans breuer org>]

Recently there are increasing requests on- and off-list regarding
features already available in the development version of Dia [1].
Usually it is a good sign for the necessity of a new release,
if already implemented features are requested.

Now there are only few (critical) bugs fixed or open for 0.98 [2]
and the number of new features is also quite concise [3], although
one of them was requested since at least 2001. [4]

Maybe you want to extend one of the lists, by working on
some unfinished patches, like:

 * Adding transparency to colors
   https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=591525

 * Connections spanning layers can not be serialized
   https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=600571

 * Editing test in Antialias mode (with cairo renderer)
   https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=576548

Of course there are other areas which would benefit from some
patches, e.g.:

 * better integration of dialogs (layer, diagram tree) with the
   integrated UI mode

 * replacing more deprecated widgets

 * an update to the VDX plug-in ?

 * ...

Please note, that this is *not* a call for features you want to have 
implemented [5], but a call for contributions to the next Dia version.

Even if you have no programming skills, there is also help appreciated
for updating documentation, triaging existing bugs [6] or reporting yet
unknown ones [7].
If you never compiled Dia yourself, you might want to give Steffen's Dia 
Development (and Testing) Virtual Machine a try [8].

Thanks,
        Hans

[1] http://git.gnome.org/browse/dia/log/
[2] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/buglist.cgi?product=dia;target_milestone=0.98
[3] http://git.gnome.org/browse/dia/tree/NEWS
[4] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=59880
[5] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/dia-list/2008-April/msg00056.html
[6] http://live.gnome.org/Bugsquad/TriageGuide/
[7] https://bugzilla.gnome.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=dia
[8] http://mail.gnome.org/archives/dia-list/2010-October/msg00052.html

-------- Hans "at" Breuer "dot" Org -----------
Tell me what you need, and I'll tell you how to
get along without it.                -- Dilbert