LibreOffice 3.5: bug hunting session and new features

users
#1

Hi,

As far as I remember, there wasn't yet send a special note to this lists about the coming bug-hunting event.
It will be next weeks Wednesday and Tuesday.
And of course we test the new features and enhancements that are prepared for LibreOffice 3.5.0.

Please read the full announcement below!

Hope to see you next week :slight_smile:

Cor

  = = = =

TDF announces the first LibreOffice 3.5 bug hunting session to improve
the quality and stability of the best free office suite ever

The Internet, December 20, 2011 - The Document Foundation (TDF)
announces the first LibreOffice 3.5 bug hunting session, to be held in a
virtual environment on December 28 and 29, 2011. Volunteer bug hunters
will gather on the Internet from the five continents to spot software
problems of the upcoming new major release, featuring a large number of
improvements and new functions, in order to make LibreOffice 3.5 the
best free office suite ever.

Participating is easy, and fun. Details are available on the wiki of The
Document Foundation
(http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/BugHunting_Session_3.5.0.-1),
where is also possible to find a comprehensive list of LibreOffice 3.5
new and improved features
(http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/3.5).

All you need is a PC with Windows, MacOS X or Linux, and LibreOffice 3.5
Beta 1 (which can be downloaded from
http://www.libreoffice.org/pre-releases), plus a lot of enthusiasm.
Filing bugs will be extremely easy, thanks to the help of several
experienced people who will be around to help users and supporters with
tips, on the QA mailing list (libreoffice-qa@freedesktop.org) and IRC
channel (irc://chat.freenode.net/libreoffice), from 8AM to 10PM UTC on
both days.

A second LibreOffice 3.5 bug hunting session will be organized -
following the same pattern - in mid January, immediately after the
release of LibreOffice 3.5 Release Candidate 1.

The first bug hunting session has been organized by LibreOffice QA team,
and coordinated by Rainer Bielefeld and Cor Nouws. At the end of the two
days, Rainer and Cor will award the title of Bug Hunting Hero to the
individual who has been able to spot the highest number of bugs, report
them correctly and file them on BugZilla
(http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/BugReport).

#2

Hi :slight_smile:
+1
Even if people did get it a little more promotion doesn't hurt!  Apparently it has been picked up by quite a few publications and blogs so it is shaping up as a really good event.

Good work Cor
Seasons greetings to all :slight_smile:
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#3

I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough to officially participate in the bug-hunting session. I'm just a user, not a programmer. I haven't even yet figured out LO's bugzilla or feature requests system, so forgive me if I'm putting this stuff in the wrong place. For those who will be participating, I offer the following comments on behavior I've noticed in LO 3.4.4. on Windows 7. I assume most of these issues are well known by the developers. I know I'm reporting these things in the wrong place, but I can't find a place on LO's website for feature requests.

1. The Graphite port of Linux Libertine G has several issues:

a. My attempt to use the "algn" option in a character style for Footnote Characters always results in a crash.
b. The "itlc" and "lith" and "hang" options don't seem to work on my system.
c. Anytime I try to generate a table of contents in a document using Linux Libertine G, LO crashes.

2. For some odd reason, I've noticed that the "Formatting Aids" often change by themselves, unchecking every option, so that, when I click "View," "Nonprinting Characters," nothing shows up. I have had to go into "Options," "Writer," "Formatting Aids," several times to recheck my options. I have NOT noticed that behavior in the Portable version of LO, only in the standard version.

In terms of feature requests, I would love to see the following at some time:

1. A tabbed document interface, like Atlantis (rssol.com), or Lotus Symphony (but without all the other senseless changes IBM made to the menu structure).
2. The full path of the current document in the Title Bar.
3. Full support for the expert glyphs of OpenType fonts, such as old style numbering and true small caps. The Graphite/Linux Libertine option is great (even if incomplete and buggy) but it's limited to the one typeface.
4. An easy way to assign hot-keys to special characters (such as <Alt-.> to insert an ellipses (...)). I have to believe it can be done, but so far I haven't been able to figure it out. (By comparison, Atlantis includes a hot-key option in its "Insert/Symbol" dialog)
5. A better justification system -- more like that used in LaTeX, especially with the Microtype package.
6. Better hyphenation. I often find word being hyphenated at the wrong location (ex. arbit-rary, instead of arbi-trary).

I don't want to sound ungrateful. LibreOffice is an absolutely wonderful package.

I've been using Star/Open/LibreOffice since SO 5.2. It has developed into a great program, and I still appreciate the many little things it does better than other programs (such as independent control of orphans and widows)

Virgil

#4

Hi Virgil,

Virgil Arrington wrote (23-12-11 16:41)

I'm not nearly knowledgeable enough to officially participate in the
bug-hunting session. I'm just a user, not a programmer.

Sorry that I don't agree with you here :slight_smile:
a. We have "users" not "just users" :wink:
b. It is not at all needed to be a programmer to help testing. You just need to be a user, and be able to communicate about your findings.
And you are, is what I read from the part of your post that I skipped.

During the bug-hunting sessions there will be people that have enough experience with the bugzilla system to help you and others that are new in there.
See http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/QA/BugHunting_Session_3.5.0.-1

But hey, when you are not able to make it to the session, people will try to take care of your comments (the ones I snipped) and maybe post requestion for extra information...

Thanks a lot for your remarks and ideas!

#5

Cor,

Thanks for the encouragement. I do have an a question about testing beta versions.

I currently have 3.4.4 loaded on my system. If I were to load a beta version of 3.5, will it interfere with my customized settings for 3.4.4? I have a lot of templates, styles, etc., and I don't want to mess things up.

Virgil

#6

Hi Virgil,

Virgil Arrington wrote (23-12-11 17:13)

Thanks for the encouragement.

No thanks needed :wink: I'm glad to help a bit with explaining.

I do have an a question about testing beta versions.

I currently have 3.4.4 loaded on my system. If I were to load a beta
version of 3.5, will it interfere with my customized settings for 3.4.4?
I have a lot of templates, styles, etc., and I don't want to mess things
up.

Understandable !
Therefore beta builds will install in parallel. It is mentioned in the release notes under installation (very briefly, IMO, but it is there).
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/3.5.0/Beta1

Regards,

#7

After reporting problems with Graphite and Linux Libertine, I have now found that my problems have disappeared.

Today, I installed the beta version of LO 3.5 and uninstalled my old OpenOffice 3.3. After performing those operations, I experimented with some files having Linux Libertine as the font. All of the problems I reported earlier disappeared. I tried the documents in both LO 3.5 beta and LO 3.4.4. and they worked in both programs.

I don't know if the problem was solved by installing LO 3.5 or by uninstalling OO 3.3. My guess is that it was the latter. Either way, life is so much better now with LO and Linux Libertine G.

Virgil

#8

Hi Virgil,

regarding your second issue "Formatting Aids":

[...]
2. For some odd reason, I've noticed that the "Formatting Aids" often change
by themselves, unchecking every option, so that, when I click "View,"
"Nonprinting Characters," nothing shows up. I have had to go into "Options,"
"Writer," "Formatting Aids," several times to recheck my options. I have NOT
noticed that behavior in the Portable version of LO, only in the standard
version.
[...]

You might have a look at
'Bug 40482 - CONFIGURATION: Formatting aids - displayed nonprinting
characters become unchecked during printing and PDF export'
https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40482 .
A bugfix is available (comment #27), also a workaround (toggle 'Page
Preview', comments #10, #20).

mjk

#9

Hi :slight_smile:
There si a guide for installing different versions in parallel
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel
Hopefully it works a bit better.

For a single machine it is probably a lot better to just uninstall and reinstall unless you need to make sure you have a working version that you are familiar with in order to meet unexpected deadlines.  Uninstalling and reinstalling is easy and doesn't take long but it's not always time that one has in a working office.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#10

Thanks for the bug tip.

I just tested it with LO 3.5 beta. The Formatting Aids did, in fact, uncheck themselves upon export to PDF.

(I also noted that the "Print automatically inserted blank pages" also unchecked itself on PDF export.)

Virgil

#11

Hi :slight_smile:

I added the link to the usual guide for doing a parallel install
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Installing_in_parallel
to the bug-hunting page
http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Releases/3.5.0/Beta1

So, hopefully if other people have trouble with the automated parallel
install system in 3.5.0 beta then they can try the usual method instead.
Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#12

Cor Nouws wrote:

All you need is a PC with Windows, MacOS X or Linux, and LibreOffice 3.5
Beta 1 (which can be downloaded from
http://www.libreoffice.org/pre-releases), plus a lot of enthusiasm.

Beta 2 by now - with less bugs, but presumably still enough to
warrant a bug hunting. :slight_smile:

All the best,

-- Thorsten