Subject: Some stupids "click click boum" bugs
From: Joaquín Cuenca Abela (cuenca@ie2.u-psud.fr)
Date: Mon Apr 10 2000 - 13:48:14 CDT
I was thinking in the actual state of Abiword.
I think that (at least for a linux user) Abiword gives a very very good
first impression. And a very bad second one.
When somebody starts Abiword for the first time, he says: "Uuuuaaauuhh,
it's *the* word processor that I've been waiting for Linux". But this
first impression disapears very quickly when it tries it. He start to
check out the different options that he can find in the menu bar... and
it sees that there are many options that not work... and that there are
some options that make abiword crash! If I select in the gtk+/gnome
front end "Insert Date and time" or "Insert Fields" Abiword crashes.
These are the bugs that we have to *ABSOLUTELY* fix. And don't say
me... you have a cvs version, and The CVS Version Can Suck (tm). If I
remember correctly, the 0.7.8 version have the Insert->"Date and
Time"->Boum bug (or I have a problem with my version of Abiword).
There are some not so SUPER-SEVERAL bugs that have to be fixed if we
don't want to give a bad impression to the users. Some of these bugs
are:
* The vertical rule doesn't work. Just try to play a bit with the
scroll bar (it's more visible if you have a two pages document). Scroll
the doc up and down in a fast way, and the vertical rule will have
garbage.
* If the user try to open a directory (it's not so hard), Abiword crash
(this bug is specially visible in the gnome version, due to the
drag'n'drop).
* Turn off the auto spelling (I think that the 90% or so of not english
users of Abiword will turn off the spell checker). Now start to write,
for instance:
Estex
Now, just use the backspace (one time), and type " x". We must have:
Este x
But we will have the word Este with the red line (even if the spell
checker is off!), and a mix of a `x' with a `E' in the first position.
In short, when somebody turn out the spell checker and start to type, he
will see the bug (it's just a matter of time... he WILL use the
backspace).
* When you try to open a word document, you have to cross your fingers.
If the importer have problems with a word file, the correct behaviour is
to just show a dialog box with a: "Sorry, try it with the next version",
but it can not crash. (Justin, I think that your work rocks, it's only
that the word importer is one of the most visible, used, and hard part
of Abiword. And I have no clue if it's the word importer fault or the
Abiword core fault)
Don't get me wrong... I know that "if you want to see fixed a bug, just
fix it!", I will try to fix some bugs, but I don't have the time to fix
all of them, and I want to be sure that everybody knows the VERY STUPID
bugs.
Cheers,
-- Joaquín Cuenca Abela e-mail: cuenca@ie2.u-psud.fr
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