![[Logo]](/gfx/swish-a.jpg)
![[Printer]](/gfx/printer.gif){kind=small}
![[University of Twente]](/gfx/ut_logo_trans.gif){kind=logo}
AbiWord Weekly News #138, (2003, week 14, released 2003.04.06)
Welcome to this issue 138 of the AbiWord Weekly News.
Follow-ups:
Martin's Abi-View for Nautilus has caused quite a stir; however, most of it was over the concept of view controllers and little to do with the niftiness of the module. Your editor was accused of being slanted toward GNU/Linux GNOME users when reporting development news. He is, but that's just because it is the only platform he uses. To make up for a major indiscretion last week, I would like to show off something Jordi did that I literally, just missed: Win32's Font Preview. I would also like to remind Win32 users and friends of Win32 users that testers for the developers' builds are still very needed. Also, if you happen to find yourself diddling about a site that Win32 users happen to download from heavily, feel free to mention or list Abi's development release. Uploading the binary as "Kill The Purple Dinosaur.mp3" to KaZaA is also acceptable.
This week in development
Johan moves the QNX dialogues to the Photon Application Builder set, but the screenshots are still slated for "later." And, in this only slightly updated of the AWN, later is now. But if it's screenshots you want, there's been an update to the Nautilus View Controller from Dom, who followed a topic at Footnotes. Jordi also would like to show off the page number dialogue, thus proving that your editor cares about Windows too. All in all, this has really been about squishing bugs for the advent of AbiWord II: The Wrath of Dom.
Request for user assistance
Windows users, your help is doubly requested. We would like to see more bug reports coming from the Windows crowd, so, if you're feeling more daring, please download and try out the Win32 binaries when they're available. If you want some sweet functionality in AbiWord II: The Wrath of Dom, you will have to participate. You could also consider joining Project Blue Ant.
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
<EAZen> I've just created, and gave to my self, the first Development News Editor of the Year Award.
<EAZen> The Zenny
Want to stop unjust things from happening in chat? Join! It's #abiword at irc.gimp.org
*financial donation: I now have whined at Dom for an update; however, it was not available before uploading this week's AWN, again.
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:
-
AbiWord Weekly News #137 (2003, week 13) released and, in April, Re: AbiWord Weekly News #137 (2003, week 13) released : If you follow the first thread, you'll read, once again, why the mailing lists don't appear in the reply to lines. In case you don't subscribe to such mailing lists, I'll explain. Some person sends mail to a specific address on a server, and everyone whose address is in that server's database receives a copy of that letter. In many cases, like ours, the receipient has the original sender in the reply-to line. To understand why, the original re-commentator has created, for you perusing pleasure, a nice Twiki FAQ article, FaqMailingLists.
In the latter, you'll find a discussion about my evil oppression of Win32 development information. Jordi notices that I failed to include some very nifty GUI work he's put in, and I send many regrets for this one. As I explained at one point, due to the size of the main text compared to the size of my screen, I didn't even notice the attachment. So, in case I don't mention it in the editorial bit, I present to you:
Win32's Font Preview -
dead-key problem and Fwd: Re: dead-key problem : Hey there, GNOME user, need that funny character, but your deadkeys just aren't working? Gatis Spats learns from Dom how to get the input method you want most:
" You may wish to right-click in the document window, go
to "Input Methods" and select "X Input Method" from
the list. This *might* work for you " -
Downloads page : James Ogley notices an issue with the SuSE download links. A) The package is of 1.0.4 and B) The site should say SuSE8.1. Hub has taken care of this; however, your editor would like to remind you about the Latest Release page, which had correctly linked to 1.0.5. Due to SuSE's poor GNOME support, I'm sure you won't mind the, umm, poor GNOME-ability for right now....
-
Re: [Bug 4744] - RFE: Configure fix for fribidi-dev : Thanks a lot, Dom, just tell the DEA why don't you. And to think, Martin said you wouldn't be a big blabber mouth. You've been cut off.
-
QNX Dialogs uses PhAB. : Johan, making Marc look lazy, moves 21 QNX dialogues over to using the Photon Application Builder. Screenshots were not available upon release of this AWN.
-
commit: win32 page number dialog enhancements : I'm happy to present some Win32 eye-candy from Jordi:
Win32 Page Number Dialogue
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:
-
AbiWord Weekly News #137 (2003, week 13) released : Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you the only discussion that guarantees users will respond to the list: Why doesn't the mailing list set the reply-to line to itself?
Some discussion crops up about putting something in the footer. Balsa crashed after a spell check, so, my recommendation included a misspelling. I stole Hub's favourite position and acted very immutable on the subject. That was my favourite part. -
abiword, problems with tab stopps... : Now, in case you missed this, Chris Joelly and other users, the developers' builds are not stable. The older, the less stable! Additionally, Abiword does come with columns, so, you can separate text, even on one line! When using a richly featured word processor, try to use the best technique of organising your work. If you do want to try out the developers' builds, remember to use the latest and file bug reports with Bugzilla. Thank you, and have wing-dingy day.
Traffic outside of the AbiDomain is tracked and occasionally reported. This weeks includes selections from: FootNotes and The Nautilus Mailing List Archives
-
Re: AbiWord Weekly News #137 : Hey, wouldn't it be cool if your file manager, say Explorer or Nautilus, allowed you to view a document without having to load the whole application that would be used to edit it? Many in AbiLand and in the world of Nautilus think so, but others think it's the worst gorram idea ever! Just a reminder, this is neither bloat to Abiword or Nautilus, nor does it affect, by default, the traditional open-in-application reaction. So, complaints about bloat and usability may be ignored. If you don't like seeing a spread sheet in a word document, file a bug against us; if you don't like seeing a word document in a file viewer, complain to Nautilus. In the mean time,
Welcome to [Expletive Deleted]ing Bonobo Country! -
I'd use AbiWord if... : Some users are still blissfully unaware that the Developers' Builds have two key distinct features: A) They're unstable, and B) development occurs very fast. Believe the tulip eater when he tells you that, by developers' standards, 1.1.3 IS old. Do not believe that it is older than the Ancient Greeks, however, as that is used to describe most releases from the Debian community by anti-Debites, like Mark $20 Gilbert and said tulip eater.
-
commit: AbiWord is now a Nautilus View. : Same as last week's, this is Martin's happy announcement of the AbiWidget for Nautilus View Control. And, for your drooling pleasure, the updated view:
Dom's Toolbar Fix for Abiword's Nautilus View
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 2003.03.30 - 2003.04.06 | ||
| Who | Commits | In summary |
| phearbear* | 68 | QNX dialogues converted to the Photon Application Builder, screenshots missing in action. |
| msevior | 48 |
corrections to the Nautilus view, regression fixes, return Abi to it's almost mind-blowing speed*,
caret stays visible during motion, fix the backspace bug, creditted Egmont Koblingen for bug fix. Bugs: 4400, 4717(partial), 4768, 4782(from Egmont Koblingen), and 4795 |
| fjfranklin | 11 | support "px" sanely (100ppi) as a measure of border width, set correct defaults for border properties in pp_Property.cpp, export table/cell properties to HTML, bump wv version number to 0.7.5, fix wv build instructions from Niall Brown, doesn't believe I use the x in xhtml, so, he's dropped it. Punk. |
| jordimas* | 9 |
added missing rc file, small fixes to headerfooter & lists & MergeCells, page number dialogue box changes. Bugs: 4651 and 4742 |
| dom | 4 |
remove menu from bonobo/nautilus view, better icon handling, added some mime types, made the text more coherent,
ran xmllint --format on the results. Bug: 4740 |
| dchart | 2 | updated changelog of 1.1.4 up to 2 February 2003, updated changelog of 1.1.5 up to 30 March 2003 |
| mpritchett | 2 | Win32 build fixes |
| hippietrail | 1 | Bug: 4784 |
| hub | 1 | added pp_PropertyMap.cpp |
| uwog | 1 | fix up some anti-gcc 2.96 compiler issues and promises to send, "martin a whole box of gcc 2.96 compilers!" |
*phearbear: system-related work is QNX unless stated otherwise.
*mind-blowing speed: doubters are welcomed to compare it to more bloated word processors, like OpenOffice or MSOffice.
*jordimas: system-related work is Win32 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 twenty-third of March and fifth of April.
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 Plugin(s) (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 |
| 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 |
| 3778 | 30 | --- | Hanging indent setting ignores units |
| 3970 | 30 | --- | changing layouts can lead to showing other location than ...... |
| 4049 | 30 | --- | Crash on open file from floppy or network drive. |
| 4745 | 30 | Future | Change colour of foreground text for screen only |
| 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 |
| 3216 | 15 | 1.0.x | [Tabstops Cannot be Set in Second (or Third) Column |
| 3801 | 15 | --- | Incremental loader seems to struggle with large files |
| 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 |
| 2584 | 11 | 1.0.x | MS Word Rendering problem. |
| 1333 | 10 | Future | Inserting a word is O(n) in the number of words in the do...... |
| Top 20 Requests For Enhancement | |||
| ID | Votes | Milestone | Summary |
| 2183 | 330 | Future | Fully Support OpenOffice's XML file format |
| 3668 | 111 | --- | Support for window tabs instead of separate windows |
| 1374 | 96 | Future | [RFE] print odd and/or even pages only (for front & back ... |
| 1950 | 94 | Future | Wish for automatic Table of Contents |
| 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 |
| 2365 | 39 | --- | AbiWord needs 'view codes' |
| 2366 | 39 | Future | implement floating frame |
| 1929 | 37 | Future | Hyphenation is missing in Abiword |
| 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 |
| 1235 | 21 | Future | [RFE] Not possible to change zoom and font size on toolba...... |
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 | 14 |
| Verified | 51 |
| Closed | 3 |
| This Week's Bug Squishers: | |
| Verified | Name |
| 15 | Dave "I fit iron dick!" Null |
| 13 | Dom "FRICKIN' IDIOT!" Lachowicz |
| 12 | Sam "with a frick frick here" TH |
| 8 | Jord "and a frick fick there" Mas |
| 8 | Martin "here a frick" Sevior |
| 6 | Frank "there a frick" Franklin |
| 2 | Hubert "everywhere a frick fick" Figuiere |
| 2 | tomabi |
| 1 | Matthew "Dr. Evil owned a sub..." Craig |
| 1 | frodol |
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 | 34 |
| Duplicate | 20 |
| Won't Fix | 0 |
| This Week's Most Active Bug Flushers: | |
| Verified | Name |
| 42 | Mark "I finally beat Dave!" Gilbert |
| 11 | Dave "He's cheatin'...I knows it..." Null |
| 1 | No One "Beats Dave at his own game!" |
Caught Bugs
Bug spotters, beware, we're watching you!
| Bugs Found this Week | |
| Caught | Number |
| Unconfirmed | 2 |
| New | 3 |
| ReOpened | 2 |
| This Week's New Bug Owners: | |
| Verified | Name |
| 6 | Dave "I'll remember to spade or neuter my bugs" Null |
| 1 | No One "Really owns a bug, per se..." |
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
Until I catch wind (read: search for) a hackdown until 1.0.6, this is just floating here.
| 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 | 4 of 5 | 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 | 10 of 13 | [META] Find/Replace bugs and enhancements |
| 4488 | 2 of 13 | [META] Help System Bugs |
| 4627 | 12 of 16 | [META] Copy/Paste bugs |
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. | |