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AbiWord Weekly News #135, (2003, week 11, released 2003.03.16)
Welcome to this issue 135 of the AbiWord Weekly News.
Follow-ups:
The Stable HackDown was corrected (as necessary for something being done by hand), and, at the same time, the Head HackDown gains a new goal, one that's almost complete--HIG compliance. This AWN removes a linking faux pas by request of Hub; target to blank is no longer used in the AWN.
This week in development
Various issues come up for a word-processor that wants to support numerous languages. It's a good thing that such things may one day have a Twiki page to cover them. Have you noticed that to the left? Yes, under the "Support" heading, you'll notice Twiki has gained its own page.
Request for user assistance
Like those dedicated and good-hearted people on American Public Television, we would like to ask for a financial donation.* We would like to pull out an extra $400 minimum for a "dedicated 19" 2U rack server, 2.4Ghz P4 (533 FSB) on a 100 Mbit full duplex connection. That should fix all the speed issues for us European guys (and maybe it's even faster for you en_US guys)." This was discussed in chat, and was never cleared for me to actually mention it in AWN, but, technically, it wasn't not cleared, either. Under any circumstance, the money would certainly go to a good cause, and if we raise $13 Million USD, we could buy Microsoft's Corel stock.
Silliness of the Week
To increase funding for AbiWord, all X/HTML documents will have a "Made in AbiWord II: The Wrath of Dom" image attached at the bottom. If you want a wrath-free one, either hack-it-yourself or send us money. Yes, Free software can also be nag-ware!
I asked you punks for images depicting Dom's wrath. Only one of you has ever succeeded. Now, the Nederlander has come up with something far more horrifying than Wrath of Dom... The Love of Dom -- Oh for the Love of Hub, I don't know why someone would want to know of such a terrifying and unnatural concept!
But our favourite Abi-Artist didn't stop there.
The provider of 80% of our screen shots* has come up with something else you might want to drool over.
Stop! In the name of HIG! Before you see the dialogues!
New Header/Footer Dialogue
*financial donation: I know I haven't gotten to whining at Dom for the latest update on the AbiFund, but I promise to send something Tuesday-ish, and when he responds, I'll put it in the next AWN.
*80% of our screen shots: This number was taken from The Authority on Weather, Economy and Lotto Numbers...namely right out of my bottom.
This Issue
And remember, I give you an email address so you can talk to me, in case you're not on either 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 up-to-date 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:
-
Translation issues (see 4664 thread) : Mark, after observing Commit: Bug 4664 and Translations problems in version 1.3.99, has appended the output from msgfmt, a tool for spotting formatting flaws. AbiTranslators should review this, as well as see Raphael's response to Commit: Bug 4664 to check out their own...as msgfmt gives out with "msgfmt: too many errors, aborting."
-
Win32 Hackers please help! : Martin makes a plea to Win32 hackers to get Win32 up and on its feet again, particularly in regard to the new units & layout work. Dom recommends those who wish to help review Tomas' comments in the thread commit: huge layout patch
-
ClarisWorks Importer : Larin Hennessy has been interested in picking up the work for the ClarisWorks plugin for Seth. Larin points out some issues that seem to result from version changes, as Hub developed for version 5, while the problems occur in version 6 documents. Hub suggests his young Claris/AppleWorks library at SourceForge. It should also be pointed out that Hub never got as far as would be desirable with the plugin, and may not due to issues regarding his current employment.
-
Reference TWiki Plugin Matrix on "Main" Web Site? : Randy is as proud as a peacock to declare the great usefulness of the AbiTwikiPluginPageThingy. Some quick here and there about the consistency of the plugins precede Dom's recommendation that a Twiki link appear on the sidebar. Ladies and Gentlemen, if you look to your left (and all the way back up), you'll see the addition of Twiki to the Support section. What few people know is that our own Tomas Frydrych played Twiki in "Buck Rogers", hence his early interest in the bidirection capabilities of Abiword, or as he put it, "Bidi, bidi, bidi, bidi."
-
right-to-left translations : Raphael Finkel's come across a deceptively simple solution for bidirection handling that he's added to his "notes to translators." It involves a simple GTK setting that allows for simple switching in and out of the default language direction.
Traffic on the user mailing list is sporadic at best. Often, a good topic comes up, but users tend to only respond to the original poster rather than the list (as well), which limits what I would add, as the only lone threads I post are announcements of importance or points of great interest. This week, interesting topics on the user list included:
-
Euro key : A continuation of Euro money sign , Bernard wants to know how to make the currency sign of the Euro. Alan labours in obscurity to learn the secrets of the Alternative Graphics (Alt Gr) key, you can think of it as the second shift key on the calculator. Alan posted a list of the Alt Gr that may produce the Euro (maybe?). Hub explains the common conditions which, if met, will allow for the creation of the Euro key--those being keymap and character-set support.
-
page numbering : Landy Roman discovers problems with trying to get page numbers to print. Dom reports that the problem has been fixed in CVS HEAD. Now if only I could not number the first page, small Roman numerals for the next eight, no number for the next page and regular numbers starting at two from then on, I'd be a happy camper ;o)
-
preserving magnification from session to session? : Christopher Pinon has two questions, but is primarily interested in his magnification settings. Though the development version allows for percentages to be set easily, Dom explains how to set the default to the current width in 1.0.x series. Martin explains that the percentages option is not likely to be backported to 1.0.x.
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 2003.03.09 - 2003.03.15 | ||
| Who | Commits | In summary |
| dom | 38 |
print justified text again, correct some paper sizes and margins, janitorial stuff, fix field coloration when printing,
some style inheritance and appending stuff. unfinished, but works as well as before this commit, fix gnome toolbar color selectors,
fix few inconsistencies, few compile fixes on naughty platforms, Bugs: 4481, 4692 and 4693 |
| fjfranklin | 19 | build fixes, build fix in MHT importer, casting changes (c. Larin Hennessy), new UT_XML_ID_Generator class for, well, generating XML-compliant IDs, instantiate UT_XML_ID_Generator in (public) scope of PD_Document, development code for a proposed new AWML format and import/export helper (cut it down into distinct sections due to ridiculous size), saved ArVee from the Wrath of Dom by correcting the alphabetical order of abi/src/text/ptbl/xp/pp_Property.cpp |
| uwog | 15 | remove 2 lines of dead code, make the Insert Page Numbers preview a bit more fancy, nl_NL fix, Header/Footer dialog HIGrrrrifying, disable resizing of the HdrFtr dialog, fix a bug dragging cell markers in the top ruler |
| phma | 10 | Japanese update by Masayuki Hatta, Malay string update by Sharuzzaman Ahmat Raslan, German string update by Christian Neumair, Malay&German, Albanian update by Besnik Bleta, fix typos in German translation |
| hub | 8 | new files to build project builder, copy libole2 headers to framework, fix argument parsing due to changes in XP, shutup some warnings, fix expat bug, now get default lib path from NSBundle, more safety in the code when trying to access NULL m_pG |
| mgilbert | 8 | fix syntax to have flag overridden, don't cvs when we mean to tell the user how to cvs (add echo), more echoes, more build fixage for mingw32, better not have forgotten his explanation for win-fe and dist-particle, peer libiconv no longer required on win32, attempt to secure the defaulting part of prior commit |
| plam | 5 | don't draw offscreen carets, check caret onscreenness when we get a resize event |
| hippietrail | 4 |
corrected .cvsignore for google plugin, added Slovak to dictionary list and added Slovak.hash,
fixed erroneous > character, not legal XML
as discussed in upgraded Galician translation. Please commit, Bug: 3596 |
| msevior | 4 |
fix bug loading document, fix crash on zoom again, Bugs: 2715 and 4111 |
| phearbear* | 2 | fix for the problem when the caret wouldn't show on the first line in 'Normal' view mode. (m_yPoint == 0 on the first line), cmdSelect() return if posLeft and posRight is same (selectAll on a empty document) |
| jeremyd* | 1 | MSVC build fix so peer libiconv generates iconv.h for wv to use--ie build libiconv 1st |
| jordimas* | 1 | fixes win32 comboxes editing |
| rms | 1 | Galician strings by Ramon Flores |
*jeremyd: system-related work is Win32 unless stated otherwise.
*jordimas: system-related work is Win32 unless stated otherwise.
*phearbear: system-related work is QNX unless stated otherwise.
Weekly Prize Patch
Dom, with the help of all those of you who donated to help keep AbiWord great, re-established the Weekly Prize Patch. Established at $45 pre-charges (read: the financial companies cut), the prize is awarded by the decision of Martin and Dom, both of whom must agree on the winner. Though neither Dom nor Martin may vote for themselves, they posses to "trumps" that allow them to vote for the other, therefore nullifying that other's vote. Most importantly, winning is entirely dependent on how lagered-up Martin and Dom are at the time in question.
No One
No one received the Patch Prize between the ninth and fifteenth of March.
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 pow5 (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). Oh, and in case you didn't notice, they're a great way to get money from Dom, really!
Name: 4465
Description: This bug contains a compilation of numerous spelling-related bugs. Interested parties can do simple work, like Q&A to see what's still there, to more complex work, like dialogue fixin' and locale conversion If you have a current Abi and some time, you, too, can help
Advertisement: My spelring dilog isn nt ther
Recommended Outline: Whatever's easiest for you
Comments: All in all, there's something for everyone in there.
System: Any and every OS.
AbiVersion: Current (1.0.4, I would guess, dev and cvs releases may occur as well)
Challenge level: Variable
Current Heroes: You must be magical to know how to fix this
Name: Project Blue Ant.
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: 1.0.4 only (for now at least)
Challenge level: *.... 1 star out of 5
Current Heroes: "Some of the most active were Mikey Cooper, Tom Purl and Eric Blom."
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
The MoFos who had the Huevos for this POW:
(crash on print)
Daniel Jensen
(text work around)
Name: More Windows Maintainers
Description: Jordi and Jeremy 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 Heros: Jordi Mas, Jeremy Davis
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 |
| 3525 | 90 | --- | font incorrectly printed and spaced |
| 376 | 80 | 2.0 | File associate problems for all file types with Win32Slu...... |
| 428 | 44 | 2.0 | Hitting return at the beginning of a paragraph changes fo...... |
| 2362 | 30 | 1.0.x | 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. |
| 3778 | 29 | --- | Hanging indent setting ignores units |
| 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...... |
| 3488 | 20 | --- | Weird crash when editing |
| 1394 | 17 | 2.0 | on-screen landscape actually prints portrait in Win95 |
| 2924 | 15 | --- | printing abw documents defaults to black pages |
| 3083 | 15 | Future | [META] Redesign smart quote system |
| 3216 | 15 | 1.0.x | [Tabstops Cannot be Set in Second (or Third) Column |
| 3801 | 15 | --- | Incremental loader seems to struggle with large files |
| 4538 | 15 | 2.0 | Crash when cutting and pasting |
| 1865 | 13 | --- | Header/footer not loaded properly from .doc |
| 2962 | 13 | 2.0 | Printer problems with Lexmark printers on Windows |
| 1613 | 11 | 1.0.x | undo does not know about replacing |
| Top 20 Requests For Enhancement | |||
| ID | Votes | Milestone | Summary |
| 2183 | 289 | Future | Fully Support OpenOffice's XML file format |
| 1374 | 96 | Future | [RFE] print odd and/or even pages only (for front & back ... |
| 1950 | 94 | Future | Wish for automatic Table of Contents |
| 3668 | 76 | --- | Support for window tabs instead of separate windows |
| 2565 | 72 | Future | Add true MS Word .doc export capability |
| 2490 | 71 | 2.0 | Finish Cocoa Frontend |
| 2321 | 70 | --- | [RFE] Maths/Equation Editing, as a plugin maybe? |
| 1144 | 67 | Future | Improve KWord import/export filters |
| 4057 | 60 | --- | Thesaurus Shift+F7 keybindings shortcuts consistency |
| 515 | 41 | Future | columns change should only affect selected text |
| 2366 | 39 | Future | implement floating frame |
| 1929 | 37 | Future | Hyphenation is missing in Abiword |
| 2365 | 36 | --- | AbiWord needs 'view codes' |
| 2186 | 30 | Future | The insert page break setting is lost for custom styles |
| 2219 | 27 | Future | AUTONUM wanted in [ Insert/Field/Number ] menu |
| 2164 | 25 | Future | Ability to set default print command anywhere |
| 2296 | 25 | Future | doc import: footnotes |
| 2169 | 24 | Future | Line numbering |
| 3233 | 21 | 2.0 | New Language preference menu |
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. Can you believe I said QA will return next week when it's been here (or not been here) for three weeks? Final reminder, owners are the squishers and qa are the flushers (in case there's some question).
One other note, and this will apply across the bug area when the idea of credit comes up,
| Bugs Resolved This Week | |
| Resolution | Number |
| Resolved | 18 |
| Verified | 4 |
| Closed | 6 |
| This Week's Bug Squishers: | |
| Verified | Name |
| 9 | Dave Null |
| 5 | Hubert "Oop, there goes happy hour" Figuiere |
| 4 | Martin "Microsoft is threatening to clone me" Sevior |
| 4 | Sam "HIGrrr-fying should be trademarked by Michael" TH |
| 2 | Dom "(Abiword) will be protected by my shovel, shotgun, and general distrust of carnies" Lachowicz |
| 1 | Andrew "DMCA is a heavy metal band, right?" Dunbar |
| 1 | Frank "I think it's a sexual harassment suit, someone with the initials D.M.C.A." Franklin |
| 1 | Patrick "Hey, I got one: Why did the DMCA cross the ocean?" Lam |
| 1 | Jordi "Because the American economy bottomed out?" Mas |
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 equivalent 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 | 4 |
| Duplicate | 6 |
| Won't Fix | 0 |
| This Week's Most Active Bug Flushers: | |
| Verified | Name |
| 6 | Dave Null |
| 4 | No One |
Caught Bugs
Bug spotters, beware, we're watching you!
| Bugs Found this Week | |
| Caught | Number |
| Unconfirmed | 0 |
| New | 1 |
| ReOpened | 1 |
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!?"
Stable
This documents the progress of various bugs and features Hub hopes to have ironed out by 1.0.5. May the source be with him, always.
| HackDown to 1.0.5 | |
| Bug ID | Description |
| 2223 | cannot open psiWord files (re-opened) |
|
|
crash on zoom |
| 3239 | [META] Windows printing bugs |
|
|
Crashes repeatably while attempting to edit header |
| 3488 | Weird crash when editing |
| 3561 | Crash on embedded AbiWord in Evolution |
| 3625 | Multi Substitution waste memory |
| 3632 | editing the numbering style of a roman numeral list hangs/crashes |
|
|
Page setup has a problem with margins in millimeters |
| 3678 | [STABLE]Crash when editing this Word document |
| 3697 | [crash] blank AbiWord document viewed as text (View Source) |
|
|
AbiWord crashes during import of this MS Word document |
| 3766 | Dvorak Keyboard |
| 3858 | export wrong content when choosing export to "Simplified Chinese GB_2312-80" encoded text |
| 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 |
| 4283 | // comments expose lots of bugs |
| 4304 | crash when changing font of certain text (e.g. page numbers) |
| 4363 | [STABLE] Abi crashes after document open/close if text selected |
| 4449 | EV_EditBindingMap::removeBinding() leaks |
|
|
Format > Tabs dialog box completely broken |
| 4531 | Page breaks ignored in RTF |
| 4559 | section break handling is broken |
| 4647 | Abiword 1.0.4 crashes with zh_CN Chinese font locale |
|
|
Abiword.exe Entry Point Not Found |
|
|
AbiWord 1.0.4 does not compile with gcc-3.2.2 and perl-5.8.0 |
|
|
|
| 1 | Unconfirmed |
| 12 | Unapproached |
| 10 | Assigned |
| 7 | Resolved |
|
*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. *Normal bug numbers and normal text have not yet been approached. |
|
Head
On our way to two-point-oh, affectionately referred to as, AbiWord II: The Wrath of Dom.
| HackDown to AbiWord II: The Wrath of Dom | ||
| Bug ID | Open of Total | Description |
| 2145 | 2 of 3 | FCC 508 accessibility regulation compliance |
| 2921 | 2 of 2 | abi can leak memory [tracker bug] |
| 3064 | 6 of 7 | [TRACKER] AbiWord Performance |
| 3239 | 27 of 38 | [META] Windows printing bugs |
| 4142 | 3 of 12 | make AbiWord comply with GNOME HIG |
| 4425 | 0 of 0 | squash all warnings |
| 4465 | 23 of 36 | [META] Spelling bugs |
| 4466 | 12 of 22 | [META] "Motion" Bugs |
| 4467 | 8 of 11 | [META] Find/Replace bugs and enhancements |
| 4488 | 2 of 13 | [META] Help System Bugs |
| 4627 | 14 of 15 | [META] Copy/Paste bugs |
The tracking space for the Abiword 1.0.5 has been corrected, one new bug taken out by Hub. Dom adds a HIG meta, and lots of thanks to Marc, who's GLADE-ing efforts make this easier, one dialogue at a time.
See Announce: 2.0 release plan for more details on the intended route towards Abiword II: The Wrath of Dom.
|
Open Source, Open Books. Approximately once a month, don't hedge bets, I'll get this updated by asking (read: whining at) dom. In the meantime, whenever you want to see how much is in and where it gets diverted, just peek down here.
Current Balance: $1616.00
Expenditures: $860
Unique contributors: 58*
Contributions: $2723.00 | |
| 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. | |