Sorry for my belated input but i was put on a 7 day time-out and was just never re-instated (thanks for that) and just had to register again (i'll probably just disappear...anyway)...
Alot of what needs to be said has already been said i guess but here's my spin/perspective on it...

Firstly it has to be said that this is a very nice algorithm....
What seems to have miffed a few posters there is that when you put only a few nodes down (like in some of the cases presented in the video) the spiro path does not in at all in any way really match up to the nodes digitized ETC.....

And while it is true that the current node editor tool in xara would better conform in these circumstances this current tool seems to be optimised for more general use and is no where near as good at doing those perfect smooth grapical curves that perfectionists and graphic designers often need to do....So for these people its going to be like "Spiro to the rescue"......

This spiro math will suit alot of perfectionist and graphic designers out ther that are frustrated at how difficult it can be in some instances currently when they are trying to get a perfectly smooth curve with the current node editor tool. So altough it is not as practical in some general situations it is fantastic for graphical work where smoothness is paramount.

Some of these paths in the video only have a few nodes and this is to illustrate how spiro works as it becomes increasingly obvious exactly how spiro works the less nodes there are....

But bare in mind people that with any "curve node input method" (IE with no bezier handles ETC) that the more points you put down the better this type of thing will conform to the desired path....

But as the spiro math is totally different then what is currently in Xara's node editor tool and of course it is going to behave differently and have a learning curve (no pun intended) associated with it, like anything.


This is just another Algorithm that is plainly very powerful... infact quite amazing.
But again like anything its not for everyone...and will be suited more to some types of work than others, Weather or not you like it or not will depend on what type of work your doing.

One thing is for certain however... alot of people are going to love this...
And i think its great that inkscape is "bringing it on!".

We need rivalry like this...i love it.

Inkscape is the perfect counter weight to keep Xara on their toes.

P.S i like the preset node reduction capability too: i only just finished making this very same suggestion...
(And got scolded by two posters for putting up: "tired un-inpspired ideas" and ideas that are "impractical" from a real world programming perspective...i wonder if they will now rave on about the same idea now that inkscape has implemented it in their latest release.... Tis ok no need to appologise or anything...we all get carried away at times myself more than most ......)