General Comments
The XML Graphics subprojects are not fashionable but rather good old software, which a large user base just expects to be there without giving it much thought. This makes them less attractive to new contributors. Batik and FOP have been around since 1999 (note the 10-year anniversary later this year). So far in 2009, 3 committers have been active on the Batik codebase, 7 on the FOP codebase. In the case of Batik these 3 have been the same since 2005. No additions, but so far luckily no drop-offs. We have to get better at turning regular contributors into committers.
We're a little concerned (but not alarmed, yet) that a slightly growing number of patches don't get processed in reasonable time.
Other than these reflections on the longer-term developments, there are no project-level issues. Business as usual.
XML Graphics Commons
No releases, no major changes, just a few improvements and fixes in various components.
Batik
Same as last time: Not much going on. A little bugfixing and code cleanup. Activity on the users and dev mailing list was somewhat less than in the preceding quarter. The lists and bug reports enjoy the active participation of one contributor, besides the committers.
FOP
No releases this quarter. A provisional solution for changing IPD (page width) has been developed in a branch. This solution works only for simple cases and is more a hack than anything else. But it should make a majority of users happy until a more complete solution is developed.
Besides that we've seen the usual bugfixing and a few smaller improvements. No release has been made nor discussed. We are pleased to see that Jeremias has resumed working on FOP. In his absence, mainly Vincent and Andreas kept the lists responsive. Activity on the users and dev mailing lists seems stable.