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AbiWord Weekly News #184,
(For the week ending February 21st, the 8th week of 2004)
Welcome to this issue #184 of the AbiWord Weekly News.
Follow-ups:
Last week was a purple haze.
This week in development
Lots of MacOS X work and the beginning of BiDi refactoring. Also, it's official, AbiWord 2.0/2.2 will only require GTK2.2. This is the shiznit.
Request for User Assistance
Attention Indic and Arabic users! We need more of you to attempt to use and report bugs on CVS Head. As we continue to improve the glyph-shaping engine, we will need to know what is working and what is not. You, our users, are an essential part of our community development. Please participate in helping us improve the application all of us are using.
In case you haven't guessed, the fact that the plea below, languages, has remained unchanged is because no-one has even told us they're trying to help. However, we were told that two were not that different (if at all) from a close linguistic relative. That said, please-oh-please give us assistance.
Hi there. We're looking for people who can help keep AbiWord accurate and uptodate in a number of languages. Please look over them and see if ither you or someone you know might be able to assist us. Remember, your contribution is not only welcomed or encouraged but is also documented, for an easier-to-brag experience. The languages we are looking for are listed below:
- Afrikaans[af-ZA]
- Armenian[hy-AM]
- Assamese[as-IN]
- Chinese (Singapore)[zh-SG]
- Cornish[kw-GB]
- Corsican[co-FR]
- Croatian[hr]
- Esperanto[eo]
- Estonian[et]
- Farsi[fa-IR]
- Flemish (Belgium)[nl-BE]
- Frisian[fy-NL]
- Georgian[ka-GE]
- Hausa (Niger)[ha-NE]
- Hausa (Nigeria)[ha-NG]
- Hindi[hi-IN]
- Icelandic[is-IS]
- Korean[ko-KR]
- Macedonian[mk]
- Marshallese (Nauru)[mh-NR]
- Occitan[oc-FR]
- Thai[th-TH]
- Urdu[ur-PK]
Due to the traffick of people who are trying to help with picked up languages, those who are interested in helping us are encouraged to join ither mailing list. Please read the instructions for the list you are most interested in joining to get the correct address. Joining, as you'll find out, is a simple three step process. First, send a letter to one email address; second confirm you sent the letter by sending a reply, and third...oops, there is no step three. Ok, so, excluding all the minor steps of what to click and/or type, it's really a simple two-step process.
There are just two important reminders in using the mailing lists which all users are expected to do. If you want your message to even make it to the list, you message will need to be in plain text only. Due to an insurgence of a certain virus a while back, all HTML email is rejected for reasons of sanity. Webmail users will have to figure out how to turn on plain-text only before sending email. Second, you are required to send the language in Engrish or English. For those of you who don't speak English well enough to send Engrish, it is recommended that you send the letter in both your native language (identify your language please) and after that, in the same message, send it in a machine-translated version of your message, like BabelFish, in case no-one who speaks your language is available to translate your message for the list. Failure to follow these proceedures in the past have led to frustration and resentment. We apologise in advance for any inconvenience these two requests may cause you.
Silliness of the Week
Captain Reynolds turns to Zoey, as time passed more slowly than ever before. Her gun raised, she fired. Zoey looks over at the Prince and asks, “How's that for loyalty?” The Prince approaches the Captain's body. When he kneeled down, a sudden burst of thunder crosses the desolate rock, and Inara's shuttle lands so close, that the sudden drop of the nose deals a fatal blow to the Prince.
“Damn, woman! Don't you think that was a little close!?” Mal seemed...upset.
Inara exited, explaining, “ I had to be sure, and weren't you supposed to be dead, anyways?”
“Disappointed?”
“A little.”
That would have been so much better if I had not just written gibberish off the top of my head.
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. Actually, everything I say is purely editorial. You kind of get used to it.
Discussions
Traffic on the developer mailing list has settled at about 50-100 postings per week. This week, interesting topics on the developer list included:
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commit: abiword-plugins (BOTH): integrate coquille and docbook plugins
commit: abiword-plugins (BOTH): psion plugin build fix for Darwin :
→ Frank rises to the occasion for AbiUsers on MacOS X and Darwin in general. Coquille and psion are now up and running for our Apple Audience.
§ Apple™®© should neato “Apple Audience.” Commit (HEAD): 3 new MacOS X dialog + menu layout fixes
Commit (HEAD): List documents dialog for Gtk + fix DocComparison :
→ Hub also takes the time to make MacOS X more fun to use by adding the Document Comparison dialogue, List Documents dialogue and the History dialogue. And more on the joy of proper cross platform programming, as Hub's magic fingers fix the Document Comparison dialogue.
§ It would be a tragedy if an application's portability was toolkit dependant. That's the kind of poor designing and evil sock puppet would come up with. DocBook <-> AbiWord conversions :
→ Dave Malcolm asks a question that may be of interest for those of you interested in building your own project, one that may work with the AbiWord XML format; he asks, “How do you feel about 3rd parties writing code that generates AbiWord documents?” To paraphrase the answer(s), “If it's valid and Just Works™, we would like to encourage that! In fact, we love it so much that we (Martin) are doing it ourselves.”
§ Is Martin working on a secret GNOME Office-based project!? Will it be to the rest of us!? How Soon!? Stay tuned, same ant-time, same ant-letter! commit (HEAD): bidi and shaping
commit (HEAD): bidi refactoring :
→ Tomas has begun work to abstract the BiDirectional text control and glyph-shaping. He hopes to achieve to goals: make it possible to use optional third party controls via plugin, like, pango or SIL graphite, and to conform to the Unicode bidi algorithm. Visit the two message for more technical details.
§ Yes, that's right, you'll nolonger see wheel-abi.so.1. Commit (HEAD): MacOS X X-Code projects
Commit (HEAD): build_all.sh / MacOS X
Problems building on Panther 10.2.3 with XCode 1.1. :
→ Hub has announced that he shall nolonger develop the project under Project Builder, but instead, will be using XCode. This resulted from switching a MacOS X 10.2, Jaguar, system to some form of GNU/Linux. Jaguar users will still have the ability to build AbiWord via the ever-lovable autoconf build system.
§ Pretty interface, code completion and symbol browsing...the only thing to ask is, “Why did he take so long!?” Commit (STABLE): require GTK >= 2.2.0
ATN: Tree branched
Commit (GTK24): require gtk+-2.0 >= 2.3.0
Commit (GTK24): GtkFileSelection -> GtkFileChooser :
→ Stable is now officially locked into GTK2.2, and HEAD has been branched to create a GTK2.4-to-be tree. Anoncvs users may try the new branch out under module name ABI-GSFGTK24-PORT. To encourage testing, you'll find a real purty 2.3-style File Chooser screenshot here.
§ ME ABC: Minor Errors Already Been Cleaned-up. commit: Rework TOC layout.
commit: New fp_DummyRun class for TOC's
commit: ewritten backend for TOC with lots more features.
commit: More TOC fixes. :
→ Martin developer Table of Contents at a blinding rate. New features include the ability to create arbitrary labels to be placed before each heading (including the overall name for the Table of Contents), the ability to alter the normal configuration of the headings numerical layout (roman/arabic numerals, alphabetical characters, use of parentheses), and optional and configurable text before and after the numbering, plusse the numbering may also be nested.
§ Cool!
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, e.g. solutions to problems in a preceeding thread. Happily, the user list is becoming more active! This week, interesting topics on the user list included:
-
??? SOS
:
→ Ladislav Cetkovsky found a wonderful multi-lingual-spell-checking word processor. Unfortunately, there was some difficulty finding a Romanian dictionary, especially as seeing AbiWord/Enchant defaults to ispell dictionaries. Thankfully, Alberto Cabello Sánchez did find a very relevant project here.
§ More users helping users; who doesn't love that!? Problem :
→ If you're a Windows user, and, like Loran, abiword files do not automatically open for you when double-clicked, there is a simple remedy. During the AbiWord install, there is one point where possible file types may be associated with the AbiWord application, this also include abiword files, those with the extension .abw. You only need associate the .abw file extension with AbiWord; this can be done by re-installing AbiWord.
§ I wish I knew how to do that in Windows; unfortunately, my not using it prevents me from knowing more with regard to this.
Development
CVS StatsKeep track of the latest developments, from bug fixes to requested enhancements. You'll find it easy to watch the progress made by the developers or individual developers involved. Perhaps you'll even be encouraged to try a development build of either branch.
| Developments for 2.0 from February 15th through the 21st, 2004 | |||
| Who | Commits | In summary | |
| Frank J. Franklin | 21 |
Much work focused towards the Darwin platform.
Platforms: → Cross Platform: stop _UT_OutputMessage() from getting stripped (linker hack) → MacOS X: psion plugin build fix for Darwin File Types: → Psion: plugin build fix for Darwin → Coquille: integrate into the docbook plugin to avoid build problems → Building: → Automake: autoconf macro updates to handle changes in automake-1.8
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| Marc Maurer | 15 |
Backports and building requirments.
Platform: → Cross Platform: unbreak build (includes improved input methods support) → Windows: typo.pl changes From Johnny Lee Building: → General: require GTK >= 2.2.0, require gucharmap < 1.3.0 (yes, lt) Bugs: → 6388: (From Dom Lachowicz) — Incorrect print command crashes abiword → 6397: (From Dom Lachowicz) — Enabling Retrieve Surrounding code for text edit | |
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| Rui Miguel Silva Seabra | 2 |
RPM updates
Building: → Redhat Package Manager: update dependency to gtk-2.2.0 and glib-2.2.0, revert to requiring glib-2.0 | |
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| Developments for 2.1 from February 15th through the 21st of 2004 | |||
| Who | Commits | In summary | |
| Tomas Frydrych | 69 |
Bidi refactoring.
Features: → BiDirectional text: move ContextGlyph to graphics, refactoring, extracted new shaping-related classes from gr_Graphics.h/cpp, extensive refactoring Platforms: → Windows: input modes related build fix, separate build fix |
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| Hubert Figuière | 51 |
Lots of work on MacOS X, including THREE new dialogues.
Features: → History and Revision: New Dialogues: Document Comparison, List Documents, History; added ellipsis for 2 menu commands that triggers [List Documents dialogue] Platforms: → MacOS X: remove dead code, New Dialogues: Document Comparison, List Documents, History; added ellipsis for 2 menu commands that triggers [List Documents dialogue], implemented XCode building, handle leftright and updown cursors, warning squashing → Unix: fix DocComparison dialog that was crashing upon display, implements ListDocuments dialog, don't set the Document Comparison dialog as visible, Building: → XCode: project file transfer/building, update of build_all.sh to work with XCode, remove Info_xxxx_.plis from project, finally fix the Info.plist problem → GNUMake: update for the latest platform files, |
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| Martin Sevior | 38 |
Tables and Table of Contents!
Features: → Table of Contents: rework the layout to allow arbitary labels to be placed before each heading, new fp_DummyRun class to remove unwanted Listlabels, rewritten backend allows lots more flexibility and features, fix a tab bug with indented lines → Tables: single click column selection Bugs: → 6323: Selecting a column and changing formatting only changes cells above → 6414: there should be some visual clue for autogenerated parts of the document |
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| Marc Maurer | 24 |
Building updates and plugged Linus' book.
Building: → General, Unix: require gtk >= 2.2.0 instead of 2.2 ... >Just for Fun: The Story of the Accidental Revolutionary< in stores now!, require gucharmap < 1.3.0 and GTK 1.3.x deprecated build fixes → MSVC6: update projects files and README |
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| Francis J. Franklin | 18 |
Much work focused towards the Darwin platform.
Platforms: → Cross Platform: stop _UT_OutputMessage() from getting stripped (linker hack) → MacOS X: psion plugin build fix for Darwin File Types: → Psion: plugin build fix for Darwin → Coquille: integrate into the docbook plugin to avoid build problems → Building: → Automake: autoconf macro updates to handle changes in automake-1.8 |
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| Pierre Abbat | 4 |
Welsh translation from Rhoslyn Prys
Translations: → Welsh, Great Britian: update and corrections From Rhoslyn Prys |
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| Mark Gilbert | 4 |
use correct type when available for 64bit int instead of strange gnuc ext.
Building: → General: use correct type when available for 64bit int instead of strange gnuc ext. |
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I think I broke something because Frank has the same output to both trees.
POWs
It's happening Really Soon Now™!
Bug Update
Bug Market
![[graph]](../graphs/abi_bugs-2004.02.22.png)
This week's activity: ResoUnconf +5 (5 : 0), VeriNew +2 (4 : 2), ClosAssi unch (0 : 0),
The market has dropped from its record high last week, but has not entered the negative. Alan Bluespan, unsurprised, explained that it would have been difficult to maintain last week's numbers at even 10% for much longer than a month, due entirely to the concentrated effort made by the limited number of market players. Louis Bugkeyser, however, went on to note that anyone can participate in the market; for more details, see this guide.
For information about how to view the chart, please read 142's Special Interest.
Bug Votes
These are the week's Top 20 Bugs in the categories misfeatures 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 MisFeatures™ as of February 21st, 2004 | |||
| ID | Votes | Milestone | Summary |
| 376 | 82 | 2.0.x | File associate problems for all file types with Win32Slu...... |
| 3778 | 46 | --- | Hanging indent setting ignores units |
| 5059 | 41 | 2.2 | Recent Files breaks with international file names |
| 5815 | 35 | --- | Variable-width font issue |
| 4745 | 31 | Future | Change colour of foreground text for screen only |
| 2362 | 30 | 2.2 | AbiWord only prints across half of page |
| 4031 | 30 | Future | Hebrew status line message is not displayed correctly |
| 4722 | 30 | --- | When using -p or --print the output isn't usable |
| 5252 | 30 | 2.2 | Contrast between cursor (caret) and background is ruined ...... |
| 5782 | 30 | --- | Abiword hangs opening attached Word document |
| 5794 | 30 | --- | Horizontal space and distortion at print page break in We...... |
| 6181 | 30 | --- | cursor position is not updated when changing paragraph style... |
| 2868 | 26 | 2.0.x | character widths are not calculated correctly for some fonts... |
| 4896 | 25 | 2.0.x | the very last character can't be selected |
| 6011 | 25 | --- | Spelling check provides bad suggestions and improperly pl...... |
| 2421 | 24 | 2.0.x | TM, Bullet, Euro, Smart Quotes and other symbols originat...... |
| 6112 | 24 | --- | Win32 Windows Accumulate Dirt from Windows Objects |
| 6354 | 20 | --- | --merge=FILE command line option does not work in abiword... | 1679 | 17 | --- | List changes should keep selection |
| Top 20 Requests For Enhancement as of February 21st, 2004 | |||
| ID | Votes | Milestone | Summary |
| 2183 | 458 | Future | Fully Support OpenOffice's XML file format |
| 3668 | 166 | Future | Support for window tabs instead of separate windows |
| 1950 | 161 | Future | Wish for automatic Table of Contents |
| 2490 | 156 | 2.2 | Finish Cocoa Frontend |
| 2321 | 145 | 2.2 | [RFE] Maths/Equation Editing, as a plugin maybe? |
| 4038 | 136 | --- | Outline View Support |
| 1374 | 108 | Future | [RFE] print odd and/or even pages only (for front & back ... |
| 4057 | 70 | --- | Thesaurus Shift+F7 keybindings shortcuts consistency |
| 1144 | 68 | Future | Improve KWord import/export filters |
| 1929 | 50 | Future | Hyphenation is missing in Abiword |
| 2365 | 44 | --- | AbiWord needs 'view codes' |
| 515 | 41 | 2.0.x | columns change should only affect selected text |
| 1851 | 36 | Future | [rfe] Ability to create an ALL CAPS style, and Small Caps...... |
| 2473 | 35 | 2.0.x | [rfe] Support move & resize of images anchored to a page... |
| 1235 | 30 | Future | [RFE] Not possible to change zoom and font size on toolba... |
| 2219 | 27 | Future | AUTONUM wanted in [ Insert/Field/Number ] menu |
| 2169 | 24 | Future | Line numbering |
| 3233 | 23 | 2.0.x | New Language preference menu |
| 3419 | 20 | Future | [RFE] Add microspacing feature (tracking) for characters |
This week's top bugs went untracked
Release HackDown
Once caught up....
Abi's Relatives
Several projects are used by, use or synchronise with AbiWord. Some of the most noteworthy libraries and applications will be summarised here. Some may be added under guise of the GNOME Office Suite.; others may be added because it's really just a plug by request. Want your project plugged? Send money to Dom. I'm offering rates of $10 per plug, $25 for a month-long plug, $50 for a quartly plug and $200 to go all year. P*ing us off or the discontinuation of this section does not result in a refund.
Libraries
AbiWord uses several libraries, and other sub-applications, to give it that extra bit of polish. Here, you will learn whatever news I scrape together or has been sent to me in relation to them. I wanted to do more this week, but not so much.
Nadav died of a massive heart failure at the age twelve.
“Integrated OpenOffice.org filter ("WriterPerfect") released. Precompiled RPM binaries are now available for Ximian OpenOffice.org 1.1. RedHat Fedora and Windows binaries are right around the corner.”
Maybe I should only put up categories where stuff actually happened.
In December of 2004...there shall be a new Enchant...yes....
Applications
AbiWord is crucial to the use of, coordinates development with, or to some extent relies upon a number of applications. Only one two of these applications make it easy for me to steal information from them, so, we're talking about a lot of blog reading.
Windows WorldHere, we'll explore our Windows associates more. Well...it's currently only the one, but it's a very important one.
Nullsoft Scriptable Install System
I wonder if I will ever hear from these people again.
GNOME Office SuiteSince I don't know of applications outside of AbiWord that use AbiWord, I'll be doing this Gnome Office business. These people should have newsletters, so, I can steal crap from them.
This week, the only non-gtk requirement for Gnumeric is gconf. Of course, if you don't care about the details and would rather see the general pretty bits, the charting engine is officially under the “smooth running” phase of development. Also worth noting for the drool worth is SamuraiMike's radar plot implementation, which is expected to be incorporated relatively soon. Watch out for 1.2.6 Real Soon Now™.
Nnnothin', I hope. I may have missed somethin'.
Nothing YET in Criawips, but keep watching!
A new website kicks off the beginning of the changes in how Conglomerate presents itself. While everyone with access begins playing with the new site, Dave asks, based on how people are using it now, “What is Conglomerate?” Dave considered stepping away from CMS-like functionality and pushing client-type end user concept. However, the idea of using a version control system for an xml-like-based website, as discussed last week in Sean Wheeler's thread “Save a Copy?,“ appears to be a relatively common, making Conglomerate still useful in this direction to many people. That thread begins here.
Other
Look, a place to talk about the AWN
Trying real hard with limited time.
2.0.whatever is coming soon!
Once I'm all caught up.
Alberto Cabello Sánchez has proven a helpful user this week, and therefore, gets the BlueAnt Award for Exemplary Competence. Congratulations, Alberto!
Open Source, Open Books.
Last Updated: December 6th, 2003Approximately 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.
Word of caution, numbers lightly fudged due to (hopefully) temporarily incomplete data. Like a consultant's suggested price, you'll find hidden meaning in the data if you stare long and hard. Surgeon's General's Warning: Staring long and hard may have psychotropic affects; keep out of reach of people who like that sort of thing.
I cannot promise the time of de-fudging, nor can I promise there will be de-fudging any time soon. However, I feel confident that there will be some de-fudging going on.
These are numbers from all of time! Everything since the paypal AbiFund has been setup is in here, not just this month or just this week. Just in case you didn't figure that out, I'm restating it since the PayPal incident first incited interest in this.
Current Balance: $2144.20
Interest earned: $19.34
Expenditures: $2185
$210 to feed 12 people at GUADEC
$100 to pay for Marc's work on the new server
$700 to pay for the new server
$400 to pay for Martin's Boston Gnome Summit Trip
$400 to buy Andrew Dunbar a new computer
$ 60 to misc./entertainment expenses at GNOME summit, GUAD3C, other, paid out of dom's pocket
$225 Patch Prize (those already successfully awarded)
- $ 45 Will Lachance (?)
- $ 45 Marc Maurer
- $ 45 Ruud Vring
- $ 45 Patrick Lam
- $ 45 Dom Lachowicz
- - note: Pat and Dom went to an Italian restaurant named Dom's on Boston's North End.
Neither Pat or Dom seem to recommend visiting Dom's anytime soon.
Actually, I didn't ask Pat, but I'm pretty sure he'd agree.
Personally, I recommend avoiding Dom altogether.
Hmm, typo, what?
Unique contributors: 61*
paypal: 66
check : 3
cash : 1
*61: plusse 3 repeat offenders whom we love dearly
Contributions: $2311.84
Less paypal and other banking fees: $167.64
| PLEASE! Help promote AbiWord development by donating money. The money go to a general AbiWord "fund", presently hosted by Dom Lachowicz (cinamod@hotmail.com). | |
| 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. | |