Is Inkscape's output rendered by OpenGL? If isn't, why not? It could improve the program performe a bit. A downside is that a such implementation could be hard to apply over the existing codebase, but it seems that the current rendering engine uses the native cpu instead of hardware. A though

no it isn't.
As to why, because it's easier said than done. We are moving towards
using Cairo for rendering, which will give us this, but converting over Is a big task, and it's gonna take a while.

Hello:

I would like to become a code committer to enable OpenGL in Inkscape. Even though I have used open source software (cvs, eclipse, QT etc.) I have never joined an open source project. Can someone give me some pointers as to how I get in line with the project's goals, standards and development environment ?

Thanks. I look forward to making Inkscape "super fast" with GPUs

kronos_maximus wrote:I would like to become a code committer to enable OpenGL in Inkscape. Even though I have used open source software (cvs, eclipse, QT etc.) I have never joined an open source project. Can someone give me some pointers as to how I get in line with the project's goals, standards and development environment ?

While hoping prokoudine will reply in regard to participation in open-source projects (in general and related to Inkscape) - here is a short list of steps which might help getting familiar with the Inkscape project:

• get the sources and compile inkscape yourself
• the wiki has docs for developers (Note: some of them might be out-dated)
• subscribe to the developers' mailing list (inkscape-devel)
• catch up with recent discussions/developments (online archives: sf.net, gmane.org, nabble.com )
• get familiar with inkscape's code base (online doxygen)
• discuss your ideas on the mailing list
• get familiar (and register) with launchpad (bug tracker, branches, blueprints)
• read Working with Bazaar
• fix a couple of bugs
• create a blueprint (add full specifications page in the wiki) for your proposal
• … (apply for membership in the developers team, work on your blueprint in a branch, etc)

… and some quick notes:

• Commit access requires to have at least two patches accepted and committed.
• The next version 0.49 will replace the internal renderer with a cairo-based one, implemented in one of last year's GSoC projects. This work continues as GSoC project this year.
• Inkscape does not use Qt nor will it replace the current GUI toolkit (GTK+) with Qt.
• Recent mails on the topic of using OpenGL directly in Inkscape:1, 2