AbiWord Weekly News #153, (2003, week 29, released 2003.07.20)

Welcome to this issue 153 of the AbiWord Weekly News.

Follow-ups:

      OTS goes through another evolution, but the Latest Releases is still a day to go.

This week in development

      OTS 0.3.0 released, lots of Mac OS X chatter, Win32 gets a Menu Make over and the HackDown for 2.0 gets a revamp, bug-wise.   QNX users might want to take the time to wake up and give a few things a try.   Meantime, if you have someone who hasn't tried anything other than the 1.x series or earlier, you can give them an update yourself!

Request for user assistance

      If you want an equally rich and powerful Windows release, we really, really could use some Windows developers.   A whole mess of people with even just an hour a week could help.   Of course, the "three with only two hours a week" model hasn't been helping!   We're desperate!   We'll take a line a day if there's enough of you!   Please help...please!   Doesn't a platform like yours deserve a chance?

      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.

      Attention users with spare change.   Marc ended up on the wrong end of a money conversion.   He's now 144 euros in debt for our CURRENT! alternative server at the University of Twente*.

Silliness of the Week

      Can you believe it?   I'm late for my fiftieth!   Actually, when I started, this would be right on time ;o)   Two more weeks until my first anniversary!   I'm registered at ThinkGeek.

      Mark put in a bit of effort the other week to create a summary site of what's going on in AbiWord II: The Wrath of Dom.   From What's New to the latest bug fixes and even downloads thrown into the mix--you'll find that page a fountain of information.   He's even keeping it uptodate, just like he said he would!   That must be why he owes donuts this week ;o)   You'll find this handy-dandy, all-in-one, soon-to-have-a-timeline page under AbiWord 2.0 Status Update.   It's so useful...I refused to bookmark it!   You probably will, but I like to only keep track of pages that have no use beyond sheer entertainment (like metaphysics, brittish engineering and Microsoft Certification--wow, look at all the crap on the 'Net).

      Want to stop unjust things from happening in chat?   Join!   It's #abiword at irc.gimp.org

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:

• Discussion
• Development
• Bug Update
• Release HackDown

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 200-400 postings per week.   This week, interesting topics on the developer list included:

1. Commit: Enchant, Enchant spelling backend checker ,
     Commit: Enchant ispell provider ,
     Commit: the enchant spell checking engine works with abiword ,
     Commit: Uspell enchant backend ,
     Commit: enchant configure options ,
     Commit: Enchant dictionary status function ,
     Announce: Enchant Readme/Website ,
     Commit: Enchant allows provider orderings :   What happens when you take a hacker from Philly, a couple of bugs, some varying API's and a girlfriend to engrossed in Harry Potter to notice a single thing he's doing?   The Enchant Library, of course!   Dom has created a meta-framework for managing multiple dictionaries (and possibly even more in the future).   It's design is to act as a means to send virtual function calls (sorta)* to the library of the dictionaries specified by the user.   It creates a consistent means of working with those libraries without having to know too much about the variations of each.   Currently, ispell*, pspell, aspell, uspell and hspell are supported within Enchant.
     "It's not a new wheel; it's a F*ing axel!"*

2. Commit: OTS dictionaries ,
     Commit: French OTS dictionary ,
     Commit: Spanish OTS dictionary ,
     Commit: Esperanto OTS dictionary ,
     Commit: Danish OTS dictionary ,
     Commit: Catalan OTS dictionary ,
     Commit: Italian OTS dictionary ,
     Commit: Russian OTS dictionary ,
     Commit: More OTS language dictionaries ,
     Commit: Yiddish OTS dictionary :   Did you know Andrew has a thing for languages?   It kind of makes me wonder if he just scripted these babies into existence ;o)   On top of those listed, he created (as in, the most limited beginning) dictionaries for Czech, Welsh, Finnish, Irish (Gaelic), Icelandic, Malaysian, Romanian, Swedish, and Ukrainian.   Anyone interested in expanding these dictionaries, please feel free to assist.

3. Commit: Toolbar border fix [Rodney] :   Rodney Dawes, a considerate user who loves pretty interfaces, has cleaned up the GTK-icon appearance of the toolbars.   In the example provided by Hub, the less-clean icons are on the left, the new appearance is on the right....<squint /> I think

4. Announce: LibOTS 0.3.0 released :   With twenty-two dictionaries and a bug fix, Dom believes it's time to warrant a release.   Dom has also taken the time to chat-up RedHat about including the Open Text Summariser within Rawhide, Red Hat's developmental series.   Also, a side discussion comes up on how to generate such a dictionary.

5. Commit: some cut+paste future fixes :   Dom's modern cut&paste framework has reached the 90% Need™* as anticipated by most uses.   The new framework was written with the intent of creating a system that would hide the appendXXX and insertXXX piecetable methods inside of the IE_Imp class, making it possible to paste data from a clipboard with near indifference as to the source.   Planned advancements include abstracting the capabilities of the RTF import.   At this time, only the GDA plugin uses these features.

6. commit: win32 ownerdraw menus, our we finally have a decent look in win32 ,
     Win32 owner drawn menus and
     commit: win32 owner-draw fixes :   Jordi re-implements the Win32 Menu code.   Though the commit was pre-mature and after a feature freeze, the intent being able to display icons next to the relating text was considered Worth It™*.  To this time, the commit has had some fixing and no reversions, so, Windows users may anticipate seeing this in AbiWord II: The Wrath of Dom.

7. cocoa build? :   Seth Delackner wants to build abi for Mac OS X.   The risk of using CVS means finding out that the build is broken, but Hub puts forward his work to make sure that it works.   Users of the anoncvs can use the more uptodate project builder files via the following command: cvs co abicocoa .   And, as usual, remember to read the README.

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:

1. Abiword language settings :   Keith Powell runs into the historically permeating problem of AbiWord not knowing the user's choice in language.   Often, when this is encountered, editing the normal.awt file (assuming you can find it) to add or alter the $LANG setting will fix the problem.

2. Abiword -> PDF :   Phil Thompson needs to take data from a database, work with it and save it in pdf format at the command line, and Abi just might be the solution.   Dom Lachowicz and David Bear go into possible solutions for filling this need.

3. Export in pda and LaTeX ,
     Re: AW: Export in pda and LaTeX (dev) and
     RE: AW: Export in pda and LaTeX (dev):   I can't export x anymore!   This happens when a number of formats (particularly the commercial ones) are moved over to the plugins.   The Import/Export of FileTypes plugins are the ones you are probably looking for when this happens.   However, Windows users may be feeling a different problem, as no successful build with plugins has been added yet.   Yet, there is hope as Jeremy may include it in the his tinderbox builds, and Mikey will give another attempt at properly building plugins with the tradition build in the near future.   If such a successful build comes along, I'll be sure to mention it in the next AWN of that week (if tinderbox) or include it in the Latest Releases (first post-1.99.2 update coming tomorrow).

4. plugins in osx and
     commit: abiword-plugins: (Re: plugins in osx) (dev):   Jacobo Myerston is having difficulty in building for OS X due to issues relating to libtool (Apple v. GNU).   While Hub suggests begging the compiler gods for forgiveness and calling an end to any hope of building plugins for OS X natively. &nbps; In the meantime, Frank commits another patch and crosses his fingers...stay tuned for more of...As The Apple Turns©*.

Development

      Track 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....

      Current pows are here. This will probably be replaced next week if not this very week.

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 Market

      This week's activity: ResoUnconf +34 (35 : 1), VeriNew -1 (18 : 19), ClosAssi -5 (0 : 5),

      Bug registration is out-growing bug repairation, with ResoUnconf being the only positively growing value.   Alan Bluespan phoned in to remark that it is all probably somebody else's fault, and most likely someone who promised a major Bug Cut before re-election.

      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  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.

      Recently deceased describes 3550, Mouse wheel still bugged in documents, while re-zombified does a good job with 1679, List changes should keep selection.   And, all that is under the bugs category.   Enhancements had quite a bit of fiddling with, but with no new bug added or old ones removed.   Users are an odd group of people.

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

      There is not stable tracker bug, so, I'm chopping it out until told otherwise.

Head

      On our way to two-point-oh, affectionately referred to as, AbiWord II: The Wrath of Dom.

      Removed from the list are 2145, FCC 508 accessibility regulation compliance, and 4467, [META] Find/Replace bugs and enhancements.   I'm guessing the logic here was "realism."   Meantime, 4734, RFE: Ability to link plugins statically, has been removed as more QNX users need to test what has been done.   However, 5119, setting meta-data does not dirty the document, being absent currently alludes me.   Finally putting his foot down where it makes sense, 5278, page numbering imported incorrectly, was taken off.   I would picture that this list would be more along the lines of MetaBugs, not lone bugs with some level of standing, but I'm just an editor, don't mind me....   A very active Solaris bug, 5411, Crash when choosing a font in toolbar, has been added this week.   Good news, though, 4627, [META] Copy/Paste bugs, has lost three more!

      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.

      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.

Current Balance: $1604.34
Interest earned: $8.64

Expenditures: $950
$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

Unique contributors: 58*
paypal: 57
check :  3
cash  :  1
*58: plusse 3 repeat offenders whom we love dearly

Contributions: $2723.00
Less paypal and other banking fees: $115.00