Re: AbiWord is too buggy for Bonita

On Thu, 17 Mar 2005, Michael D. Crawford wrote:

> Date: Thu, 17 Mar 2005 12:35:54 -0400
> From: Michael D. Crawford <crawford@goingware.com>
> To: abiword-dev@abisource.com
> Subject: AbiWord is too buggy for Bonita
>
>
> Friends,
>
> Please understand that in what follows I am genuinely trying to help,
> not to insult or offend you. I'd like to see AbiWord succeed. I'd like
> to see you crush Microsoft Word like a bug.

We do not need to compete with Microsoft Word. Just being there is a win
for abiword. Every satisfied user is a win for us.

It would probably be helpful to read this document if you have not already
done so
http://www.abisource.com/support/expectations.phtml

> She found AbiWord, running on Windows XP, to be so buggy as to be
> completely unusable.

> Eventually she gave up, and is presently using OpenOffice. I've found
> other reasons to be unhappy with OpenOffice - it doesn't do safe saves -

I'd be surprised if they didn't have that functionality hidden away
somewhere but perhaps not where you might expect it or under a different
name but this is the Abiword list, no need for me to try and help
OpenOffice.

> Her main problems were screen refresh problems. AbiWord spent so much
> time redrawing the screen that she had trouble even entering her text.
> There were also lots of bugs in the screen drawing.

I saw one or two of these just the other day (forced myself to use Windows
to do some Abiword Quality Assurance testing). Unforunately it can be
very time consuming to track down and reproduce these issues and explain
them in enough detail that a developer can do something about it.

The problem is made even worse by the fact that the Abiword
developers are mostly working on the GTK version of Abiword and
there is a dearth of developers working on the Windows version (and I
cant say I blame them).

Frankly I'd love to see a GTK Windows version of Abiword, either that or
I'll be forced to run Abiword on Wine to help test it more often.

> I respectfully request that you focus your efforts on fixing bugs rather
> than adding any new features, at least until AbiWord for Windows is
> stabilized.

I dont know how or where it came from but it seems Abiword has developed a
reputation for having lots of bugs. (I suppose the myriad of printing
problems on windows doesn't help.) All I can say is that any help at all
you can spare with bug reporting will be very much appreciated.

> It's quite possible that AbiWord works better on Linux,

I know I like it better on Linux but the differences are not massive
thanks the clever design of abiword most things are shared crossplatform
code.

> but there are many more potential users on Windows.

This is a fact that has never been lost on the AbiSource developers.
Problem is it seems there are far fewer Windows developers interested in
contributing to Open Source

> I know it is controversial to write free software for non-free operating
> systems, but I assert you

It really shouldn't be. Just look at the history of Emacs.
It is not something that the Abiword developers (except one) ever made an
issue out of and Abiword was started very much as an "Open Source"
project.

(Most Free Software advocates are still using non-free BIOS and it is
pretty hard to avoid vendors in your daily life that use non-free embedded
code. One step at a time.)

> made the right choice to support Windows. Few people are going to
> install Linux just to try it out, but lots of them would install a five
> megabyte download just to see if a free word processor is worth their
> while. My first experience with free software was on a very non-free
> SunOS box.

I understand. I think it would have taken far longer for me to try out
Linux if it hadn't been for Windows versions of Open Source software.

> I haven't looked in your bug database yet, but I expect that if you
> fixed all the UI bugs that have already been reported, Bonita would find
> AbiWord worth using. I could then probably convince her to give it a
> second try.

We really do appreciate any help you can provide.

> If you think we've discovered new, or as yet unreported bugs, then I
> would be happy to to reproduce every bug I can find and file proper bug
> reports.

More detail might help make it easier to track these down even if they are
already known.

> I've been subscribed to abiword-dev since long before 1.0, as it has
> always been my intention to help out with its development.

Knew the name looked familiar.

> I am sorry I have not been able to up until now. But I'm learning to
> manage my time better these days, maybe soon I can be of more
> substantial help. I am particularly good at debugging, and I run
> Windows, Mac OS X and Linux machines all on the desk in my office.
>
> (I read Alan Lakein's book "How to Get Control of Your Time and Your
> Life", and as a result I am both able to get my work done more
> effectively, and to have more time for other things that are important
> to me. I recommend it highly.)

Sounds like a book I might benefit from, I'm late for dinner...

Sincerely

Alan Horkan

Inkscape, Draw Freely http://inkscape.org
Abiword is Awesome http://www.abisource.com
Received on Thu Mar 17 19:45:23 2005