[synfig.git] / synfig-studio / trunk / NEWS

              synfigstudio releases

 0.61.08 (SVN 1???) - February ??, 2008 - Bug fixes

 * Synfig Studio is now translatable using gettext.  Currently French
   and Spanish translations exist.

 * Build
   -----
        Fixed errors and warnings detected by a pre-release version
        of g++ 4.3.

        Fixes to allow sigc++ 2.1 and newer to be used.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1859663

        Removed the 'bootstrap' script for building.  Use autoreconf
        instead.

 * Settings
   --------
        Added the option to run everything in the same thread.  It
        doesn't work very well, and seems to cause more problems than
        it solves.

        Default 'end time' for new canvases to 5s instead of 0.
        That's one less thing a new user then needs to edit to start
        making his first animation.  Also, don't show the intimidating
        canvas properties dialog when a new composition is created,
        just use the defaults.  Set environment variable
        "SYNFIG_ENABLE_NEW_CANVAS_EDIT_PROPERTIES" to revert this
        change locally.

        If no documents are specified to be loaded on the command line
        at start-up, create a new empty document so the novice user
        can get started straight away.  If environment variable
        SYNFIG_DISABLE_AUTOMATIC_DOCUMENT_CREATION is set, don't
        create a blank document on startup, even if no documents were
        specified on the command line.  I'll add proper configuration
        items within the gui for this and other recent changes soon.

        Add a setting in the gui for the auto-backup interval.

 * Draw Tool
   ---------
        Fixed the 'fill last stroke' button in the drawing tool.

        Rearrange the drawing tool options a little.  Instead of
        'region only' have checkboxes for 'region' and 'fill', like in
        the bline tool, so now it's possible to draw regions and
        outlines together.

        Fix: When drawing an outline and a region at the same time,
        put the outline just on top of the region.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1829172

        Fix: Always leave only the newly created layers
        selected.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1830245

 * About
   -----
        Fix: Change the about dialog to a splash screen and implement
        a new about dialog based on Gtk::AboutDialog. Still need to
        connect it up to configure.ac though.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1678554
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1741220

        Fix: Show the correct SVN revision id in the about
        dialog.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1797745

 * Linking
   -------
        When linking simple values, use the value from the topmost layer.

        Attempting to link a duck from the Children panel with other ducks
        was causing an error.  Now it isn't.

 * Quality
   -------
        Change the default quality to 8.  It makes shade layers render
        better without much impact on speed.

        Label the preview qualities "best" and "fastest" because it's
        not clear that higher numbers mean lower qualities.

 * Files
   -----
        When doing a 'Save As', default to saving in the same
        directory that the file was loaded from, if any.

        Remember separate default directories for opening and writing
        each of animations, images, sketches, rendered output, and
        "miscellaneous".

 * BLine Tool
   ----------
       Allow the bline tool to draw plants as well as outlines,
       regions, and curvegradients.

       When the bline tool is creating new layers, arrange the new
       layers in the order: Outline - Region - Plant - Gradient, so
       that each layer is at least somewhat visible.  Rename the
       "*layer_bline*" variables to "*layer_outline*" since they
       represent outlines specifically.

 * Waypoints
   ---------
        Fix ugly waypoint drawing by rounding to integer values
        symmetrically.  The improvement can be seen in
        http://dooglus.rincevent.net/synfig/waypoint-symmetry.png .

        Improve the waypoint context menus.  Now it's possible to
        delete and duplicate complete trees of waypoints at once.  The
        'change interp' functionality has been extended too, so now
        it's possible to set the interpolation type for the whole
        waypoint from the context menu as well as just the side that
        was clicked on, and it's possible for single waypoints as
        well.

        Fix a crash when editing a waypoint with a non-static value.

        Attach the "(Non-static value)" label into the waypoint
        dialog.

        Experimental: "export SYNFIG_SHOW_CANVAS_PARAM_WAYPOINTS=1" to
        see canvas parameter waypoints, not canvas content waypoints
        in PasteCanvas layers.  Doesn't work too well - dragging the
        waypoints doesn't work, for instance.

        When a PasteCanvas' "time offset" parameter shifts the timing
        of its sub-canvas, the waypoints of that subcanvas are now
        displayed shifted accordingly.

 * Time
   ----
        Allow manual editing of the current time in the workarea
        window.

        Don't expand time fields to their full format (eg. "1s" -> "0h
        0m 1s 0f") when they get keyboard focus.  export
        SYNFIG_SHOW_FULL_TIME_ON_FOCUS=1 will restore the old
        behaviour.

        Make sure the time entry box shows the correct time - rounded
        to an integer number of frames.

        Improve the range of different scales used on the timeslider.
        Previously 3 fps animations were having the timeslider
        labelled "0.75f, 1.5f, ..." rather than "1f, 2f, ...".

        Subdivide the space between labels on the timeslider sensibly.
        Don't divide a 5 second gap into 4 parts of 1.25 seconds each,
        for instance.

        Set minimum and maximum zoom levels for the timescroller.

        Allow the use of horizontal scrolling to adjust the current
        time in timeslider widgets.

        Improve the algorithm for determining the number of tick marks
        to put between pairs of labels in the timeslider widgets.
        It's better to divide 5 minutes into 5 tics of 1 minute each
        than 6 ticks of 50 seconds each, for example.

        Added a new icon for values of type "Time", thanks to
        genete.

 * Windows
   -------
        Rename "Dialogs" to "Panels" for the dockable windows.

        My panels were drifting one or two pixels each time I started
        studio.  This seems to be window-manager dependent.  I've
        added environment variables to allow adjusting the drift to
        stop it.  SYNFIG_WINDOW_POSITION_X_OFFSET and
        SYNFIG_WINDOW_POSITION_Y_OFFSET.  Setting them both to 1 stops
        the drift for me in xfwm4.

        Remember the position and size of the color and gradient
        dialogs even if they're not displayed when studio exits.

        Applied patch from IL'dar AKHmetgaleev aka AkhIL to allow
        different pixel sizes in the workarea window.  control-'(' and
        control-')' make the pixels bigger and smller.

        Fix: If the window positions and sizes seem to be corrupted, give
        them sensible values to prevent them being created
        offscreen.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1836848

         * Console Window
           --------------
                Show a very simple message in the console on start-up so as
                not to scare people when they see an empty terminal window
                'doing nothing'.

                Show a similar message in the console on start-up if
                Studio is already running, to let the user know what
                is happening.

         * Toolbox Window
           --------------
                Allow adjustment of the default brush size using
                horizontal scrolling over the preview graphic.

                With the re-enabling of 'Alpha Brighten', the toolbox
                has become a little wider.  Some foreign translations
                of the blend method could also push it wider.  And
                since we have 15 tool icons by default, I've made the
                toolbox 5 icons wide instead of 4, and rearranged them
                slightly.  The top row is now all for "moving ducks",
                the middle row for "drawing stuff", and the bottom row
                is more drawing on the left and looking at stuff
                (eyedrop, zoom) on the right.

         * Workarea Window
           ---------------
                Added environment variable SYNFIG_DISABLE_TILE_RENDER
                which when set will prevent the tile renderer from
                being used.

                If environment variable "SYNFIG_SHOW_TILE_OUTLINES" is
                defined, draw red outlines around tiles as they are
                rendered.  For debugging purposes.

                Indicate that a canvas is unsaved by putting a '*' in
                front of its name.

                The popup caret menu was disabled for some tools.  New
                environment variable
                SYNFIG_ENABLE_POPUP_MENU_IN_ALL_TOOLS re-enables the
                popup menu when set.  Should this be the default?
                Comments please to the bug report.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1829182

                Fix: Studio was crashing sometimes when closing a
                document.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1850637

                Fix: Studio occasionally renders the tiles in the
                wrong places.  This was happening when the canvas was
                one pixel greater than an integer number of tiles
                wide, and low-resolution rendering (the default) was
                enabled.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1824437

                Don't hide and reshow the workarea window when the
                user clicks the 'X' button to close it.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1682008

                Add checkboxes to the toggleable entries in the view
                menu.

                Add 'new', 'open' and 'quit' to the caret>file menu.

                Change the default 'toggle onion skin' keyboard
                shortcut from control-o (which is the stock binding
                for 'open') to alt-o.

         * Preview Window
           --------------
                 Fix: Crash closing preview window before using
                 it.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1835429

         * Canvas Properties Dialog
           ------------------------
                New environment variable:
                'SYNFIG_DISABLE_NEW_CANVAS_EDIT_PROPERTIES'.  When
                set, don't pop up the canvas properties dialog when
                creating a new document.

                Fix a problem with the canvas properties dialog.  It
                wasn't possible to edit both the 'name' and the
                renddesc parameters at the same time before.

                By default, set "use current frame" in the render
                dialog to off.  When "use current frame" is on,
                disable the Time tab's frame.

                Disable the 'Time' tab when "use current frame" is
                checked.

                Don't allow the user to set the 'ID' of exported
                canvases to be empty.

         * Layers Panel
           ------------
                Allow the layer panel to be sorted by layer name.
                Resize the layer name column to fit the layer names.
                Rename the "Layer" column to "Name".

         * Groups Panel
           ------------
                Allow layers to be removed from groups without the
                user having to type the name of the group they are in.

         * Params Panel
           ------------
                Added a 'Type' column to the parameter dialog so it's
                possible to tell an 'Add' from a 'Subtract' convert
                for example.

         * Children Panel
           --------------
                Renaming exported ValueNodes no longer causes a
                crash.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1823053

         * History Panel
           -------------
                The entries that appear in the History panel are now
                more explicit; they mostly now give details of the
                operation rather than just a generic fixed string,
                making it easier to navigate through the history.  For
                example "Remove Layer 'left leg'" will show up rather
                than just "Remove Layer".

                When the user types in the History dialog, search for
                any text in the 'name' column that matches the text.
                Previously it was only searching for names matching at
                the beginning.

 * Targets
   -------
        Fix the 'auto' render target selection, so it automatically
        choses the target type each time based on the filename.

        Added new target 'magick++' for rendering multiple images to a
        single file using Magick++.

 * Ducks
   -----
        Always draw 'real' ducks on the right hand side of the circle
        they define.  Previously, canvases with a negative horizontal
        pixel width were drawing it on the left.

        Add an option to restrict 'radius' ducks to the top right
        corner of the plane.  This allows us to easily set their value
        to zero by dragging down and left.  Thanks to Zelgadis on IRC
        for the suggestion.  See "Toolbox > File > Setup > Misc >
        Restrict Real-Valued Ducks...".

        Show the size of circles as they are drawn using the draw
        tool.

        Give slight priority to radius ducks.  That way, it's possible
        to select the radius duck for a circle with radius zero.
        Previously the position duck would usually be selected
        instead.

 * Misc
   ----
        New feature: Angles are not wrapped modulo 360 degrees.  It's
        possible to animate from 0 to 361 degrees and see a full
        rotation, rather than seeing it shortcutting as it was
        previously.  It's also now possible to drag angle ducks around
        their origin multiple times and have the rotations
        count.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1827966

        Fix: Exported canvases weren't being deleted on shutdown, due
        to a handle never being released.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1868911

        Fix: Use the 'C' locale when loading and saving
        sketches.  Not doing so was causing load/save failures in
        Spanish locales.
                                http://sourceforge.net/support/tracker.php?aid=1830670

 0.61.07 (SVN 878) - October 10, 2007 - Bug fixes

  * Fix some tooltips and menu stuff (#1787437)
  * Allow left-right scrolling in canvas window with shift + mouse-wheel
  * Rework mouse interaction with ducks and tangents
  * Move icons to a subdir
  * Fix some typos, several crashes (#1780016, #1785598) and other bugs
  * Re-enable sketch, draw, polygon by default
  * Add keyboard shortcuts for all tools ( http://synfig.org/Keyboard_Shortcuts )
  * Fix crash when setting canvas resolution to zero (#1779616)
  * Add 'auto-export' checkbox and layer name box to the draw tool
  * Various GUI fixes (#1794006, #1796110)
  * File-selector fixes (#1383736)
  * Fix the View>Play menu entry to allow playback inside the workarea, shortcut Ctrl-P
  * Save to .sifz (compressed) format by default if no extension is given
  * Remember the path used when saving a document and default to it in future
  * Call new documents "Synfig Animation <n>" by default, rather than "untitled0"
  * Don't quit until the user clearly answers "do you want to save?" (#1799722)
  * Remember the filename the animation was last rendered to, and default to it (#1799250)
  * Improved the 'Groups' function a little (#1368694).  It's still quite broken
  * Fixed the colors displayed on the sliders in the Color Editor dialog
  * Added option to Bline Tool to allow positions to be automatically linked (#1776156)
  * Added menu entry to restore all dialogs to their default positions
  * Fix red "Animate Editing Mode" frame so it shows up in all themes (#1801220)
  * Allow user to "export SYNFIG_DISABLE_POPUP_WINDOWS=1" to make splash screen etc. less obtrusive
  * Fixed the logic used to decide which value to use when linking values together
  * Update child canvas time sliders when parent time slider is moved
  * Prevent the caret menu entries from being disabled when another canvas is closed
  * Show the correct initial quality level in the View > Preview Quality menu

 0.61.06 (SVN 543) - June 20, 2007 - Bug fixes
 
  * Fix amd64 issues
  * Fix corruption of gamma settings
  * Fix manipulating layers in the layer dialog
  * Disable the timebar instead of hiding it
  * Fix File -> Close & input devices close button
  * Fix targets that crash in synfigstudio
  * Fix some doxygen warnings
  * Fixes in the sketch tool
  * Fixes in the draw tool
  * Fix several crashes
  * Fix bline looping
  * Misc Win32 fixes
  * Add optional GNOME thumbnailer
  * Rework several dialogs to use GNOME HIG
  * Disable several tools, see FAQ to re-enable
  * Disable the empty Palette Browser dialog
  * Add mousewheel support in canvas windows
  * Add tooltips to preview window & give it a default size
  * Display HTML values in the colour dialog
  * Add an icon for the curves dialog
  * New Tango ArtLibreSet styled icons by PXEGeek

 0.61.05 (SVN 128) - February 27, 2006 - build issues

  * Fixed building with gtkmm 2.8 (#1373933, #1358304)
  * Allow the toolbox to come to the front (#1367916)
  * Make the user prefs dir configurable at build time
  * Fixed minor build issues

 0.61.04 (SVN 103) - January 10, 2006 - MacOS X packaging

  * Fixes for the MacOS X packaging

 0.61.03 - December 8, 2005 - Build & copyright fixes

  * Update more old copyright and licence notices
  * Fully fix building with GCC 4

 0.61.02 - November 26, 2005 - Build fixes

  * Better Win32 / MacOS X packaging
  * Use new GTK+ file chooser
  * Adds some GCC 4 tweaks
  * Fixes crash on layer reorder
  * Include errno.h where needed
  * Other tweaks

 0.61.01 - November 6, 2005 - Copyright updates

  * Update old copyright and licence notices
  * Add ./configure options for debug, warnings, optimisation, profiling
  * Uses per-os directory separator
  * Add TODO file

 0.61.00-39 - November 1, 2005 - Developer preview

  * First public release!