SDL 1.3 will probably have a different representation of the display,
so the point will be moot.
that’s slightly worrying - will apps written for 1.2 need to be rewritten?
how much change (if any) is likely to be needed?
Has programming started yet or when is it going to appear?
It will be started when the people involved have time to work on it.
I’m in the middle of buying a condo, so that’s some of the delay.
then the FAQ needs an update - specifically, the “can I help” question
needs much more in the way of “yes, and here’s how” 
alternatively, will patches for 1.2 still be accepted? if 1.3 is still
many months from being available, yet alone useful, then some of the issues
people are raising should be able to be fixed in 1.2, even if 1.3 will have
the fix, once it’s done.
See ya,
-Sam Lantinga, Software Engineer, Blizzard Entertainment
To quote from the FAQ:
http://www.libsdl.org/faq/FAQ-General.html#GENERAL_5
(I apologise if this is badly formatted for anyone)
Q: What’s up with SDL 1.3? Can I help?
what we’ve learned over the past four years. The architecture design is
partially done, and we’ll start prototyping the design soon. As soon as
there’s a working framework, we’ll make it publicly available for comment
and contributions. This new framework has about a year or a year and a half
before we anticipate it being ready for stable release. We anticipate this
framework being the next generation SDL 2.0 API. In the meantime, enjoy the
current stable release: SDL 1.2A: SDL 1.3 will be a near full rewrite of the SDL functionality, based on