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AbiWord Weekly News #118, (2002, week 46, released 2002.11.17)
Welcome to this issue 118 of the AbiWord Weekly News.
Great week for news! First, Mark is already tagging pre-releases for 1.0.4! If you want to know what's different, visit the Release HackDown And if you're in the gtk2 world and are just dying to test out the next developer's release, feel free to keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming 1.1.2. You may have noticed 1.1.1 didn't really go anywhere (not even in links on SourceForge), but 1.1.2 will be very pleasing, especially printing with XFT (i.e. it's there now!).
On the subject of news, Salon writer, Andrew Leonard (pic) wrote a nice story about AbiDevelopment, AbiWord up (properly cornied title, mind you). Next week, a very temporary edition to the AWN, polls shall exist for the purpose of seeing what most of you want to see layed out.
Matthew Craig, possibly the most active QA helper in the Abiverse, has a nice new POW for you. It's quite simply you following a set of instructions, taking an hour or two out of your day, and reporting back. Also, this week (possibly only), you'll find bugs in a more simplified format, just to see how you might like it.
And remember, I give you an email address so you can talk to me, in case you're not on ither mailing list.
In this issue:
Editor(s) of this issue: E. A. Zen
If you're interested in using AbiWord for the first time, receiving a more uptodate version, any particular version or special release, feel free to visit the new Latest Releases page.
DISCLAIMER: It should be generally noted that anything said before the "In this issue:" line is purely editorial.
Discussions
Traffic on the developer mailing list has settled at about 200-400 postings per week.
This week, interesting topics on the developer list included:
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AbiWord Weekly News #117 (2002, week 45) released : Basically, a repeat of an age old debate about the proper meaning of the word "proprietary." I said it was correct, but Rui said it wasn't (and then that it was confusing, and then we stopped talking). Alan didn't like it either (he mentioned it first but argued less).
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commit: More printing fixes for xft. : Martin adds a one-liner to fix printing problems for xft builds. Dom finds that it works fine and Martin wants to retag 1.1.1 Possibly unrelated, at this time, Rui locates some massive resource hogging when using menus.
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1.1.1 on SourceForge? : James Ogley wonders when 1.1.1 will be on SourceForge, only to be informed a new tagging is on the way.
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Announce: Intent to tag/release soon : Speaking of which, this is Dom's official announcement of said tagging (still in the Real Soon Now™ phase).
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AbiWord 1.0.4_pre1 "Unofficial official" there for the wgetting : On the subject of releasing, 1.0.4's pre-release is announced by Mark "IOU" Gilbert.
This week, interesting topics on the user list included:
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Request bug confirmation : Steve Blackwell has an issue that results in crashing while using the lists dialogue. Your sinister editor is the only one who doesn't experience it.
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Problem with build : Alan McConnell is having some 1.0.3 compiling problems on his 8.2 Mandrake system. Informative for Mandrake users, John recommends installing XFree86-static-libs-4.2.0-10mdk off the distribution's own discs.
This week, interesting topics beyond AbiLand included:
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Re: An Inside look at Abiword Development (ed. the second one) : Erik, erikelephant, voiced a positive response to the Salon article. Originally under the impression that the GNOME office suite was almost pointless compared to the embrace of OpenOffice, but after comparing new features and the article's positive view on the AbiHackers, he states, "The application gets better and better by the minute. With table support, it's finally good enough for me and getting better by the day. "
Development
CVS StatsTrack who put in how much and why. And, while you're at it, consider whether you'd like to keep your own cvs build as well. Tables...ooh....
| CVS checkins 2002.11.03 - 2002.11.09 | ||
| Who | Commits | In summary |
| dom | 90 | Removed deprecated GNOME pieces (moving to gtk-centric rather than GNOME as a platform); XFT printing repairs; hidden text; version number bumping; accented character input fix; unix clipboard/selection insanity from wlach; cursor bugs de-annoyification; non-virtual errors/memleaks; OpenOffice Writer's importing work (Go, Dommy; it's your birthday. Go, Dommy; it's your birthday.); fix bugs 4295 and 4313. |
| jeremyd | 27 | popt work for windows & remove configuring from makefile; documentation updates (just to test the new cvs client, mind you). |
| hub | 25 | New Cocoa font management; some pbx project updating thingy; killed off xap_CocoaFontManager.h references; wv build as a framework |
| msevior | 24 | work towards turning off gtk double bufferring to reduce weirdometer readings; xft printing repairs including tables printing after the first page & their background colours too!; Implemented brand-spanking-new GTK 2 double buffering; return the cursor appearance before Dom closes for 1.1.2 |
| wlach | 8 | utf8 to UCS4 for future statusbar commit; removed old statusbar code while expanding unix "representative string"; statusbar tweaking |
| fjfranklin | 6 | Unix graphics fix; a freetype fix alternatively titled "let's try to break the build..."; bumped version removed antiquated VERSION.TXT |
| uwog | 6 | fixed warnings for Unix graphics; an "obiwidget" fix [ed. it was too cute pass up]; Cache fonts in the XAP_Preview_FontPreview class & reduced font dialogue flickering |
| jordimas* | 5 | fixes including bugs 3373 and 4025 |
| phma | 5 | Initial Albanian translation by Besnik Bleta; fixes typos in Albanian translation |
| mpritchett | 3 | Moved Win32 specific code from XP to Win32 (thanks to msevior); Win32 fix for initialization of toolbar comboxes |
*jordimas: system-related work is Windows unless stated otherwise.
POWs
The concept of a "Project Of the Week" is to single out tasks of major interest that outside developers might be interested in providing assistance to. Until a "best way" of listing POWs come to mind, they shall be listed in a short description. Any user interested is welcome to assist in tackling these POWs. If you know someone who's interested, you can link directly to a POW, in order, they're pow3 (at the top) through pow1 (at the bottom). Reminder to developers, I can't post them if you don't submit them. Additionally, feel free to announce if one of these is finished (in case you don't mention it on the list or in the cvs) Also, what a great way to get money from Dom!
Name: Regression tests for the front-end AbiWord components.
Description: Perform component-specific tests, document procedural changes and open bugs as necessary.
Advertisement: Play the game and get a hero credit; more recognition than QA!
Recommended Outline: Email abiwordtesting@matthewcraig.com and include available system types, AbiVersions and previous testing experience. Receive testing instructions which will take one to two hours to complete.
Comments: No experience required. A good way to be introduced to AbiWord contribution efforts.
System: Any and every OS.
AbiVersion: 1.0.3 only (for now atleast)
Challenge level: *.... 1 star out of 5
Current Hero: FIRST WEEK!
Name: Style and/or Diction Plugins (bug 3281) (do either/or or both!)
Description: build a plugin to allow Abiword to check style and diction
Advertisement: me got no grammar fixer, help mes can't you?
Recommended Outline: Create a plugin for AbiWord that allows the checking of style and diction. The source code for the gnu style and diction tools is available here: http://www.gnu.org/software/diction/diction.html
As a prototype you might be able to hack something using the AbiCmd plugin to wrap the style and diction tools. The AikSaurus (Thesaurus) plugin should also be a helpful guide.
When you get the basics working you could try to get Abiword to display green squiggle underlines to mark errors, or otherwise work on a good user interface.
Comments: A great way to start playing with the AbiSource
System: Any OS will be fine.
Challenge level: ***.. 3 stars out of 5
Current Hero: The mastery of Kung Fu has yet to appear.
Name: Fix Windows printing boogs (bug 3239)
Description: Tackle some or more of the various bugs that cause issues in attempting to print under Windows
Advertisement: ????????????????????????????? (no, that's really the ad!)
Recommended Outline: You must become magical to know how to fix this.
Comments: "The problem is that printing on Windows is broken with several brand of printer drivers (see dependent bugs). It appears that with standard PostScript driver it does not happen. It appears also that version 0.9.6 had less problems than 1.0.1 so we might find out where the regression is bu diffing.
"Please, be sure to read all the bug reports. Even partial fix are accepted.
"Fixes must be done against STABLE tree and possibly ported to HEAD (the later can be done as a second step)."
This comes from Hub
Notice: This may already have been fixed with the libiconv upgrade, stay tuned!
System: Windows
Challenge level: ****. 4 stars out of 5
Current Hero: Not one MoFo yet has had the Huevos for this POW
Name: More Windows Maintainers
Description: Jordi could always use help
Advertisement: Help free people from the oppression of MSWord today!
Recommended Outline: You must become magical to know how to fix this.
Comments: Wouldn't be a bad idea to start with the printing bug...
System: Windows
Challenge level: ****. 4 stars out of 5
Current Hero: Jordi Mas
Bug Update
Bug Votes
These are the week's Top 20 Bugs in the categories problems and requests for enhancements. Influence next week's results by casting your own votes. Ah, another release, another change of what bugs are on the "Most Wanted" list.
| Top 20 Problems | |||
| ID | Votes | Milestone | Summary |
| 3269 | 120 | --- | Crashing on printing |
| 3171 | 115 | 1.0.x | rtf sets top and bottom margins to 0 |
| 3525 | 90 | --- | font incorrectly printed and spaced |
| 376 | 80 | 2.0 | File assosciate problems for all file types with Win32Slu...... |
| 1406 | 61 | 1.0.x | xhtml documents fail to open: "Bogus html document" msg |
| 1747 | 42 | 2.0 | background colour of text selection is always grey |
| 4046 | 42 | --- | The spellchecker has gone gonzo since upgrading from 1.0....... |
| 1194 | 39 | 2.0 | alt+xxxx does not insert special symbols |
| 2362 | 30 | --- | AbiWord only prints across half of page |
| 3970 | 30 | --- | changing layouts can lead to showing other location than ...... |
| 4049 | 30 | --- | Crash on open file from floppy or network drive. |
| 4057 | 30 | --- | Thesaurus Shift+F7 keybindings shortcuts consistancey |
| 3778 | 29 | --- | Hanging indent setting ignores units |
| 4216 | 29 | --- | Wrong line length, wont justify either... |
| 2868 | 25 | 2.0 | character widths are not calculated correctly for some fonts... |
| 2421 | 20 | 2.0 | TM, Bullet, Euro, Smart Quotes and other symbols originat...... |
| 3579 | 20 | --- | Save corrupted when text pasted from web page and saved a...... |
| 428 | 17 | Future | Hitting return at the beginning of a paragraph changes fo...... |
| 1394 | 17 | 2.0 | on-screen landscape actually prints portrait in Win95 |
| Top 20 Requests For Enhancement | |||
| ID | Votes | Milestone | Summary |
| 1261 | 559 | 2.0 | Need to support footnotes and endnotes |
| 2321 | 286 | Future | [RFE] Maths/Equation Editing, as a plugin maybe? |
| 2183 | 224 | Future | Fully Support OpenOffice's XML file format |
| 2365 | 105 | Future | AbiWord needs 'view codes' |
| 1374 | 96 | Future | [RFE] print odd and/or even pages only (for front & back ... |
| 1950 | 87 | Future | Wish for automatic Table of Contents |
| 2463 | 79 | Future | support embedded objects |
| 1144 | 67 | --- | Improve KWord import/export filters |
| 2565 | 41 | Future | Add true MS Word .doc export capability |
| 2490 | 40 | 2.0 | Finish Cocoa Frontend |
| 1929 | 36 | Future | Hyphenation is missing in Abiword |
| 515 | 35 | Future | columns change should only affect selected text |
| 2136 | 30 | Future | A Latex importer would be nice and useful |
| 2186 | 30 | Future | The insert page break setting is lost for custom styles |
| 3003 | 30 | 2.0 | Just "Save File As," not "Save," is available with .doc f... |
| 2263 | 28 | Future | [RFE] Please consider adding mail merge capability |
| 2219 | 27 | Future | AUTONUM wanted in [ Insert/Field/Number ] menu |
| 2296 | 25 | Future | doc import: footnotes |
| 2169 | 24 | Future | Line numbering |
Announcement, AbiFolk
If you fixed a bug, make sure you assigned it back to yourself. If you're doing QA on a bug, assign yourself in the QA Contact. As of next week, what's Dave's is Dave's; que pasa? Additionally, for everyone else, you may notice a change. This is because of reports of "too cluttered" and "too long," and let's not forget, "What the fsck did I do to you to deserve all of this crap." Next week, I may add a simple poll to see what the majority wants (save to text file, ip's logged). Said poll will decide the final version of the AWN, so, you may want to vote.
Resolved Bugs
In the past week, the following Bugs have been verified as fixed. The listed Bugs have all been put in either CLOSED or RESOLVED mode as FIXED. and QA will return next week along with the Flushed bugs. Yes, I'm having issues...hoo boy, Boris, are they issues. This is new...
| Bugs Resolved This Week | |
| Resolution | Number |
| Resolved | 12 |
| Verified | 30 |
| Closed | 3 |
Flushed Bugs
What you see here are either invalid bug reports or duplicates. So, basically, I'm showing everyone else how doofy you are sometimes. On average*, confirming duplication or non-validity takes four minutes and thirty-five seconds. That's the equivelant of 8LLOC of time for Dom. Any other questions why development isn't as fast as you want?
| Non-Bugs Flushed this Week | |
| Flushed | Number |
| Invalid | 13 |
| Duplicate | 11 |
| Won't Fix | 4 (Jane Swift?) |
Caught Bugs
Bug spotters, beware, we're watching you!
| Bugs Found this Week | |
| Caught | Number |
| Unconfirmed | 8 |
| New | 30 |
| ReOpened | 5 |
Release HackDown
This is an AbiWord Weekly News original concept: The Release Hackdown. In the table below, you can watch what bugs are being fixed in preparation for the very next release. Check the key at the bottom to understand formatting.
No pressure, guys, I'm sure only 2000 or so people will be watching to see what you do weekly. That breaks down to about 285 people daily and 12 people hourly, so, it's like being peeked at once every five minutes, literally. "Isn't that veird!?"
| HackDown to 1.0.4 | |
| Bug ID | Description |
|
|
Can't import Cocoa RTF |
| 2223 | cannot open psiWord files (re-opened) |
|
|
crash on zoom |
|
|
Cursor not initially in hyperlink dialog |
|
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Smart Insert Hyperlink, check to see if selected text is a hyperlink |
| 3171 | rtf sets top and bottom margins to 0 (re-opened) |
| 3239 | [META] Windows printing bugs |
| 3453 | Crashes repeatably while attempting to edit header |
| 3488 | Weird crash when editing |
| 3489 | Crash when deregistering plugins |
| 3561 | Crash on embedded AbiWord in Evolution |
| 3625 | Multi Substitution waste memory |
| 3632 | editing the numbering style of a roman numeral list hangs/crashes |
| 3645 | Page setup has a problem with margins in millimeters |
| 3678 | [STABLE]Crash when editing this Word document |
|
|
XAbiword version for bundle not properly set. |
| 3697 | [crash] blank abiword document viewed as text (View Source) |
| 3755 | AbiWord crashes during import of this MS Word document |
| 3766 | Dvorak Keyboard |
|
|
Loading World.abw crashes AbiWord" |
| 3858 | export wrong content when choosing export to "Simplified Chinese GB_2312-80" encoded text |
|
|
Too Many Curly Brackets in Exported LaTeX (duplicate) |
| 4046 | The spellchecker has gone gonzo since upgrading from 1.0.2 to 1.0.3 |
| 4068 | Crash when mouse leaves selected header |
| 4070 | [META] crash on load bugs |
| 4093 | Program Terminates on Open |
| 4097 | Save dialog file extension weirdness |
| 4125 | .doc file does not import correctly (BiDi issues). |
| 4183 | Save/reload puts spurious characters in simple file in 1.0.3 |
|
|
Phantom Text appears after loading file with custom tab settings |
| 4283 | // comments expose lots of bugs |
|
|
crash when changing font of certain text (e.g. page numbers) |
|
|
|
| removed from list: | 3324 |
|
*Strike-out bug numbers and greyed text are resolved. *Bold bug numbers and bold text are assigned. *Italicized bug numbers and italicized text are unconfirmed. *Removed bugs are a sign you're being screwed. |
|
See what happens when I miss a week! Mark still owes twenty bucks, but for now, I'll make some quick notes, here. Squashed bugs have doubled and assigned bugs has pretty much as well. You'll notice the removed from list was updated as 4068 returns to the countdown. This gives us a nice idea of what to expect in the pre-release ^_^
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Betchya you thought you knew what went here, eh?
Current Balance: $1497.00
Expenditures: $860
Unique contributors: 44
Contributions: $2477.00 | |
| In order to donate money, you must have a PayPal account. If you do not already have one, the links above will allow you to open one. Please consider putting cinamod@hotmail.com in the "Referral ID" field, which results in a one-time $5 donation from PayPal to AbiWord development if you verify your account. Note that only donations of $3 or more are of interest. Sorry, this is due to the fees imposed by credit card companies and PayPal. | |