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AbiWord Weekly News #197,
(For the week ending May 22nd, the 21st week of 2004)
Welcome to this issue #197 of the AbiWord Weekly News.
Follow-ups:
All I remember about last week was that I was only about to lose Angel. This week, I nolonger have a reason to watch the Frog (for once, not a reference to Hub ;o).
This week in development
2.0.7 was released.
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
Ok, I've got to tell you people this, because it was funny. This week's SeaLab, which you've watched already because the AWN comes out predictably late, had a great Buffy reference in it. When the helicopters start covering up the sky, Nathan jumps into the Hellmouth, or a evil-glowing hole with a sign above it that says, “Hellmouth.” Also, to answer the question you've all wondered, there are 42 hellmouths...41, I guess. Sunday will be the only time I'll be watching Williams St., as my sat guide now says “Case Closed” where it's supposed to say, “The Carl Show.” I love the episode where, at the end, because Shake had totally given up on logic, Carl's head blows up. The Mooninites and Plutonians should get together and have a spinoff. It should be called “Space is Loaded with NutBalls.” Or, if that's too long for a spinoff where the original was “Aqua Teen Hunger Force,” they could just squish out the middle bits and call it “SpaceBalls!”
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:
-
commit: Format TOC screenshots.
Fwd: commit (HEAD): TOC and bookmarks
commit: Fix some TOC bugs. :
→ Tomas has implement some functionality to limit the document length for which a table of contents might be produced. He's also included some extended functionality for handling bookmarks, particularly where multiple bookmarks occur in the same position of a document.
Martin targets MSWord import of text boxes and image positioning for the next major set of fixes. Troublesome documents are expected to be sent to this mailing list and/or bugzilla in the next week.
§ Today, I learned, when the spam filters are running at full, yahoo.co.uk is blacklisted. Those Brits must be some mighty dangerous folk; it is no wonder their parliament wishes to produce anti-spam laws.... commit: Fix crash pasting tables - 6822.
TAB in tables.
commit: Big step towards copy and paste rows within tables.
commit: Fix copy/paste rows in the same table.
commit: TAB in TAbles. :
→ Lots of work put in by Martin this week, including copy and paste bugs whole tables and individual rows. And, after a short discussion, it was also decided that pressing the tab key in a table would advance to the next cell, the way that almost all other word processors have functioned for the past decade. Now, as for how you would intentionally insert a tab, um, ask Martin.
§ Anyone who can provoke Marc and make him think his Feature Freeze was violated is my personal hero. Fwd: user's manual: Spanish version
Fwd: Italian Translation
HTML documentation generation. :
→ The best part of a community project, and I know I'm not alone in thinking this, is when the users really want participate. This week, to translators and translations to be were forwarded to the list. Ricardo H. Medel has offered his time to translate the manual into Spanish, and Paolo Caster has offered the same for a translation into Italian. This is all well and good, but, as the final thread point out, until ol' “$20” Gilbert gets around to sorting the online documentation problems, many Linux users may have to wait some time for the fruits of their labours.
§ Also worth noting: Marc recommended that, to make keeping translations up to date easier for the translators, it would be nice to implement a system that could track revisions to the documentation; Hub recommended a new and exciting tool called, “AbiWord's Revisions and History Tracking Tool.” Eric declared, in a loud booming voice, “Let us all laugh at the silly dutch man!” Commit (BOTH): 2.0.7 Changelog ATTN: AbiWord v2.0.7 Released :
→ So...2.0.7's out. Did you hear about that, yet? You can learn about the changes and bug fixes here. You could also just download it from here.
§ I hate sounding so dated.
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:
-
Still has strange text problems
:
→ Loran has encountered abnormal kerning-like phenomenon. Users who experience this, where, for example, the word “the” looks like “t he”, this may simply be an issue for the Page-Width setting in the Zoom box. If it is a problem, try viewing the document at 100%.
§ Notice, however, that AbiWord is only a word processor, not a desktop publisher, which is to say, it does not, in fact, perform any kerning or similar single character adjustments. Maybe in 2.6, we might see more of that, depending on whether Tomas will have time for that in about a year.
A notice regarding the user list:
People interested in using the list should: A) Subscribe and B) not send HTML messages.
Hub sent some messages that didn't meet one or both of these to the list this week.
They are not mentioned here as they have answers in previous AWNs.
You may have noticed that the 2004 index has not been built with regard to the last 4 releases.
This will be corrected over the course of the week, time permitting;
thus, simplifying your search for these answers.
This is also why the relevant AWN's have been kept at the top of the news index,
so, I don't lose or forget which ones I should be adding to that index.
Also, spell checking might make a come back, so, keep an eye out for that.
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 May 16th through the 22nd of 2004 | ||
| Who | Commits | In summary |
| Mark Gilbert | 17 |
Three beautiful bug fixes, welcome back Mark $20 Gilbert.
Bugs: → 6664: compile breaks on gda plugin with libgda 1.1.1 → 6828: gcc 3.4 fail → 6845: FreeBSD build errors. |
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| Hubert Figuière | 8 |
Backports of Window fixes and three bugs
Platforms: → Windows: defer as many screen repaints as possible while entering/leaving fullscreen From Mikey Cooper, only toggle tool/statusbars/rulers that need to be toggled From Mikey Cooper, misc code cleanup From Mikey Cooper Bugs: → 6782: (From Dom Lachowicz) — Toolbar icon for new is not the stock gtk+ icon → 6793: (From Mikey Cooper) — Taskbar not hidden when initially entering fullscreen mode → 6822: (From Martin Sevior) — Crash after copy and pasting table |
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| Marc Maurer | 3 |
Changelog for 2.0.7
Documentation: → Changelog, 2.0.7: create changelog, fix typos |
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| Mikey Cooper | 1 |
An MSVC6 project file change (to use the zlib peer).
Building: → MSVC6: update project files to use new zlib peer |
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| Kenneth “Jeremy” Davis | 1 |
Finally, sneaking around the GPL made more difficult!
Bugs: → 710: Installer requires license acceptance, contrary to GPL terms |
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| Developments for 2.1 from May 16th through the 22nd of 2004 | ||
| Who | Commits | In summary |
| Kenneth “Jeremy” Davis | 127 |
Update zlib from 1.1.4 to 1.2.1
Peer: → Zlib: update from 1.1.4 to 1.2.1 |
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| Tomas Frydrych | 37 |
More work on Revisions and Bidi.
Feature: → History and Revisions: a revisions fix → BiDirectional Text: bidi fixes, fix to redraw of first/last char of italicised run when selection present, Platforms: → Cross Platform: added purgeFmtMarks() function → Windows: remove dbg msg, fix loging of supported language Bugs: → 6818: clicking in RTL text places the cursor in the wrong place. |
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| Martin Sevior | 30 |
Mor work on Tables and Table of Contents.
Feature: → Table of Contents: fix a crashing when style not present, fix disappearing upon section strux changes, fix crash in dialog. → Table: some work to fix crashes on paste, a big step towards copy and paste rows within the same table, fix all bugs in copy and paste rows in the same table File Types: → MS Word: fix lists import Documentation: → Screenshots: format TOC screenshots for unix Bugs: → 6407: [crash] when selecting new in style dialog → 6768: Crash when pasting a table into another table that's inside a header/footer → 6802: Message box performs incorrectly when switching off 'maintain full history' → 6821: Crash after merging cells and inserting a row with document history → 6822: Crash after copy and pasting table |
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| Mark Gilbert | 25 |
Bug fixes and building
Plugins: → Building: fixes in the tools for new string class stuff Building: → Mingw: fix mingw build, weil mann muss seiner Symbols in die richtige platz haben → Plugins: fixes in the tools for new string class stuff Bugs: → 6664: compile breaks on gda plugin with libgda 1.1.1 → 6828: gcc 3.4 fail → 6841: Windows Format Font dialog still shows "Topline"/"Bottomline" options for pre-2.0 tables hack, unearths madness → 6845: FreeBSD build errors. |
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| Mikey Cooper | 20 |
More work for MSVC plus fullscreen behaviour in Windows.
Platform: → Windows: improvements to Win32 fullscreen responsiveness, defer as many screen repaints as possible while entering/leaving fullscreen, only toggle tool/statusbars/rulers that need to be toggled, misc code cleanup File Types: → MS Word: remove unreferenced local variable Building: → MSVC6: update project files to use new zlib peer, CVS Ignore MSVC compile folders → MSVC71: CVS Ignore .suo and .cpp files, stop wv project from generating VSS Source Code Control file, CVS Ignore MSVC compile folders, no longer erroneously detects a change to popt during every build, no longer bothers with wv/exporter code, get rid of “using "this" in initializer” and “debug output limit” warning Bugs: → 6793: Taskbar not hidden when initially entering fullscreen mode → 6794: Disabling all toolbars leaves toolbar screendirt |
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| Jordi Mas | 4 |
GDI+ support for Windows native plugin
Platforms: → Windows: GDI+ support for native plugin |
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| Marc Maurer | 3 |
Changelog for 2.0.7
Documentation: → Changelog, 2.0.7: create changelog, fix typos |
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| Dom Lachowicz | 2 |
A lone bug
Bugs: → 6782: Toolbar icon for new is not the stock gtk+ icon |
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Something has gone wrong in what non-mine scripts I've been using since I switched. I want to fix this soon.
POWs
It's happening Really Soon Now™!
Bug Update
Bug Market
![[graph]](../graphs/abi_bugs-2004.05.23.png)
This week's activity: ResoUnconf +26 (27 : 1), VeriNew -4 (9 : 13), ClosAssi unch (0 : 0),
VeriNew's drop in the market spearheaded an overall decline this week. Alan Bluespan noted that this trend can not continue under current conditions. Louis Bugkeyser agreed and suggested that an upswing should come with in the next couple of weeks.
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 May 22nd, 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 |
| 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 |
| 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...... |
| 5815 | 30 | --- | Variable-width font issue |
| 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 |
| 2421 | 24 | 2.0.x | TM, Bullet, Euro, Smart Quotes and other symbols originat...... |
| 6011 | 21 | --- | Spelling check provides bad suggestions and improperly pl...... |
| 6354 | 20 | --- | --merge=FILE command line option does not work in abiword... | 1679 | 17 | --- | List changes should keep selection |
| 3216 | 15 | 2.2 | Tabstops Cannot be Set in Second (or Third) Column |
| 3801 | 15 | Future | [META] Seems to struggle with large files |
| Top 20 Requests For Enhancement as of May 22nd, 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 |
| 2321 | 145 | 2.2 | [RFE] Maths/Equation Editing, as a plugin maybe? |
| 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 |
| 2365 | 51 | --- | AbiWord needs 'view codes' |
| 1929 | 50 | Future | Hyphenation is missing in Abiword |
| 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... |
| 2463 | 30 | --- | support embedded objects |
| 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 |
| 2136 | 15 | Future | A Latex importer would be nice and useful |
| 3083 | 15 | Future | [META] Redesign smart quote system |
| 1270 | 13 | Future | Should support graphical columns ala wordperfect 8/9 |
Borked scriptage to be reviewed, but 5815 appears to have lost votes.
Release HackDown
When I'm caught up again....
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...how you doin' out there, Buddy? You, uh...you still alive out there, Man?
Nothing since February.
I'm guessinnnn'...squat.
1.1.3 to be released December, 2004; as opposed to Conglomerate, which had a secret release in December 2003.
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
Since 2.0 was released, there really has been much news to report.
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.
Sockpuppet was not potty trained.
Absolutely nothin!
We're [expletive deleted]ed.
Nothing worth Noting.
Other
Look, a place to talk about the AWN
I'll have more time to dedicate to the AWN, two hours a week, in fact. Without Angel, Smallville will be left to languish on itsown.
Not as important as “Angel.”
Did you know that “Angel” got more ratings with even less money? Who's doing the WB's books?
I'm going to mention Ryan Pavlik, because that gets him all giggly inside.
Open Source, Open Books.
Last Updated: December 13th, 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. | |