[scribus] The Scribus target - a question for the developers

[Gregory Pittman]

Mike Morris wrote:
> I am new to Scribus, but not to DTP.  I have been exploring Scribus, and I
> am an avid reader of the mailing list messages. I am using Scribus
> 1.3.3.11on a Windows XP platform. My question for the developers is a
> result of the
> many comments and questions posted over the past month on such topics as who
> is (or should be) using Scribus, and such features as imposition, color
> management, printing, and even spell checking.
>
> The question:  What is the goal of the developers?
>   
I am not one of the developers, but have been on the sidelines from some 
time, and am one of those working on our manual. For a question like 
this, you probably need several answers from various members.
The way I see the development having taken place, the emphasis has at 
first been on high-quality output from the program: making PDFs 
compliant to the standards set by Adobe, including color management, and 
including the ability to use high-level components (ie, various image 
formats) to work with for this DTP work, primarily with commercial 
printing in mind. Consequently, things like imposition were not primary 
goals. Some things, such as being able to embed a PDF within Scribus, 
while desirable, are major tasks and will simply take time to accomplish.
The current development series, 1.3.5svn, is a major step forward in 
usability, and incorporates of a number of things such as those you 
mention that others have indicated are more or less essential. It is at 
least hoped that the file format at this point will be more stable, 
which should help create a greater sense of comfort for users. The 
upcoming manual should also help, since it will explain a lot about 
using Scribus heretofore not well-documented or not documented at all.
Since there are many things to be worked on, and a limited number of 
developers available to do the work, decisions have to be made about 
where to focus energy and time.

I saw an interchange posted on kerneltrap.org between Linus Torvalds and 
some other developers, when they were wondering if they could stop 
incorporating new features for a while, so that they could stop to fix 
all the bugs before moving on. Linus replied that to artificially stop 
new features would mean the death of the project, and in reality, you 
can't stop this from happening. Projects develop a life of their own 
outside of the desires of the individuals working on them. You can't 
tell people to stop working on something they're intently interested in, 
and making positive contributions about.
If you look around at the many projects that might in some sense be 
considered "stable", no one is working on them anymore. They stopped at 
version 0.9, because the developer(s) lost interest.

All in all, I think Scribus is a remarkable thing. A number of people 
scattered across the globe continue to work on this project begun by 
Franz Schmid, all trying to advance it with no significant monetary gain 
in sight.

Greg