AbiWord-2.3.0 released.

You need to build the abimathview plugin and have the very latest GtkMathView installed for the plugin.

You also need to have itex2MML. Then you can you can type latex expressions and have them appear in your document in their proper mathematical representation. To change a formula, you click on it with the latex input editor, the corresponding latex appears and you can edit it.

Luca is working on a WYSIWYG math editor but it is not ready yet. When it is we will integrate it with the plugin. In meantime if you know Latex this works really well.

I just looked at the bug report. It is quite clear that the bug is very difficult to pin point and it is being looked at regularly.

How does this in any way shape or form make bug reporting nonsensical? Please, stop the whining. Abiword is an amazing piece of software that is being actively developed by volunteers. The fact that one particular bug has not been fixed is not the issue here, but your unreasonable and unrealistic expectations are.

The codebases differ way to much to do that, amongst other things. Why oh why do people think that you can just plugin some piece of code from Application A into Application B ?

OO.o is hamstrung by the requirement that all code has to signed over to SUN before inclusion into the build.

We don't have that so we can happliy include any GPL compatible code, like Link-Grammar.

Martin

Dear Mr Professional Power Word Processor user,
We do not have smart quotes, our revision code is under continuous improvement and certainly has many bugs fixed. The poor kerning upon print is a gnome-print issue. We do not hyphenate.

Martin

Jeeze the f*cking printing is a gnome-print issue!!!!!

Get gnome-print-2.10.2 and it's fixed. I spent 6 months trying to convince the SUN employee who maintained GNOME-Print that there was an issue.

Finally Jody took on the bug and fixed it in a day or so.

It's really annoying that Ubuntu shipped the broken gnome-print library.

KWord is totally broken. If you try to insert a table more than 1 page in height, the program hangs because it can't fit it in a single page.

This bug has been in the kword code for at least 2 years and it's still in the latest version.

If this really is a Gnome-issue that the Ubuntu devs overlooked, then I'm very willing to revise my assessment of Abiword.

Let's remember, however, that your screenshot also showed this bug, which means that:

a) You're using Ubuntu as well

b) You're not using Ubuntu and therefore this bug is potentially very widespread

c) You're not using Ubuntu, the bug is not widespread, and therefore the tracking issue is only a display issue and does not show up on the printed page (would be weird, because then Abiword is not quite WYSIWYG, but I wouldn't care, since the printed page is what counts.)

So, I'm going to see if I can fix this issue by updating Gnome-print somehow.

It would also help if others reading this can post their experiences with Abiword's tracking (letter-spacing), and post their distro, as well as their version of Gnome-print.

So, msevior, I'm being reasonable here. You might still get another Abiword convert when this is done. ;-)

I was referring to the printing. If you print the document with full justification and a ttf font with a gnome-print version prior to gnome-print-2.10.2 it totally sucks. If you use gnome-print-2.10.2 and print your document it will look perfect.

So as far as I can see the print output of AbiWord is perfect.

There is an issue with the on-screen text placement. It will not be fixed with gnome-print.

Finally, feel free to open a bug on our bugzilla and post your bugs.

Please open a bug in bugzilla and attach a postscript output of a document that demonstrates the problem.

Look here is a screenshot of AbiWord-2.2.7 of a document I just finished writing 30 minutes ago.

http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/~msevior/abiword/AbiWord-2.2.7.png

This looks pretty good to me though I admit we have up to 1 pixel errors in placing some letters within words. We do not currently do sub-pixel kerning on screen although our printing is beautiful and correct to 1/1440 of an inch.

I see there is a misunderstanding about what I mean about tracking and what you mean. I thought you meant "track changes" or revisions. These are always being improved and version 2.3.0 has a substantial number of revision bugs fixed.

We have code to enable smart-quotes but we have disabled it (2 years ago I believe) because it was more trouble it was worth. Unfortunately we developers decided to work on other issues as there appeared to be little demand for the feature.

"In that case, I see no reason to even bother making Abiword. We have plain text editors for that."

See this article:

In CPU magazine:

http://www.computerpoweruser.com/editorial/article.asp?article=articles/archive/c0505/39c05/39c05.asp&guid=D8647006E0134AC4BEE181C4FDCC5E84

My favourite quotes:

"This light word processor should worry Microsoft every bit as much as
Linux and OpenOffice.org."

and

"The free, powerful AbiWord processor is the smartest choice for most
users, hands down."

Does OO.o lack of grammar checking show disrespect for you Mr Power User?

That screenshot looks awful! The text looks straight out of 1995. "En er gy", "m eas urem ents", "coll ider", etc. Wow. I'd say you proved the op's point on this one.

Any chance Abi can simply use Cairo to fix this?

Grammar checkers in wordprocessors have always been a bad idea, because most of the time, the grammar checker is wrong. Correct grammar is a particular skill for which the user is responsible. There are certain things that should never be automated. Grammar checking is one of them.

As for the nice comments from CPU mag: I'm surprised that even with the tracking issues in your text (which is also very visible when printed), you're getting good reviews. It certinaly does not look good on the page. Unfortunately, the tracking quality in your text is a big typographical no-no. What I see in your text is unacceptable. Using inch marks in place of proper quotation marks (as supplied by the font) is also a big typographical no-no. Also unacceptable. But . . . no one is really bothered by this, it seems.

Perhaps no one but I and a few others care about these things. I suppose the average user isn't that interested in proper formatting of text, that is, correct typography.

It seems that there is indeed a line between the "power user" and the "average user." Too bad that Joe Average's formatting is actually incorect. These days, only a few discerning people might notice it.

It seems I'm in a huge minority when it comes to adhering to typographical standards.

If the masses like Abiword as it is right now, then I have to accept that. The people are getting what they want (not all of us, but most), so I congratulate you on delivering the goods.

Respectfully, I might not like Abiword, for the reasons outlined. No one is forcing me to use it, so I don't. I would have liked to, but it's not for me.

You're succeeding, according to everyone else. Hopefully, one day, you'll get me as a satisfied user as well.

Good luck.

Get gnome-print-10.2 and it's fixed.

As long as you distro doesn't have it you can use our linux installer ("autopackage"). It's available from our download site and we will also release beta versions. So you can immediately use and test it.

- Rob

When we release AbiWord 2.4, most distro's will pick it up soon after. I myself can push it into Fedora instantly, and we have good contacts with Debian and Mandrake package maintainers too.

We will do our outmost effort to get everything ready on Windows and MacOSX too.

It is a bug. Have you filed it in Bugzilla ?

That will get lost. If you want it addressed somewhere in the future, please file it at http://bugzilla.abisource.com

Only in my private tree. Maybe it will be part of Abi 2.6

I am impressed!!!

I can't understand how something as complicated can be made by Open Source developers...

Well, I can't wait to try it out! That's for sure!! =)

Thanks.

Why can't you understand. Open Source developer are not less smart than prioprietary software developers.