longstanding bugs - what does it take to get them fixed?

users
#1

Probably not every LibreOffice writer user prints mailing lists but I'd have thought that a lot of people do. Yet these bugs don't seem to be getting fixed despite my having reported them several times over the years. Both of them are demonstrated in the attached file, which happens to be a mailing label form. Other forms with multiple records per page suffer the same problems.

The first bug is that a blank page gets printed between each page. On this file it's not too bad because it only prints in black, but colour pages have to be printed one at a time because the subsequent pages don't seem to get the colour initialization correct. With just black, it merely results in a blank page between every printed page.

The second bug is that labels don't use horizontal pitch, despite it being defined. Instead the start of the second and subsequent labels across a row are calculated using the label width. This should be a simple one-line fix. The program is using the wrong variable for its calculations.

This particular file was set up to print to Avery 5260 address labels, which has a gap between labels. In order to get them to print properly, I have to adjust the width to be same as the horizontal pitch or the labels start in the gap.

Who do I have to talk to in order to get these bugs addressed?

#2

A developer who is prepared either to fix it for free, one who will want
money or gifts for doing so, or alternatively a developer who works for
a company that offers paid tier 3 support.

Whatever the scenario, it would be better to check with the LibreOffice
bugzilla, to see whether the bugs have already been registered (or not,
as the case may be) and then point the paid developers / support company
in that direction. As for the volunteer developers, you can't tell any
of them what to do nor when to do it, they are, after all, volunteers,
much as virtually anyone else helping out here.

Bug reports from the LibreOffice bugzilla are automatically referenced
on the libreoffice IRC developer channel. Some developers follow
particular modules, others just look at the ones they happen to be
interested in at any given time.

There are also a whole host of mailmerge bugfixes awaiting approval for
integration into the master code repository from the Munich Wollmux
project. Whether or not any of those cover your problems, I couldn't say.

Alex

#3

Thanks Alex. It would have helped if "the home of LibreOffice" contained that information. :slight_smile:

#4

Hi :slight_smile:
Such truths are unpopular with "the higher-ups" here and Alex probably got
hassled, off-list, for daring to say it. Alex's answer does tell how to
get the job done, and even hints at a variety of options, but the
"higher-ups" tend to miss that bit and only see the negative.

My posts are often "under moderation" and i have often been threatened with
being banned (or even really been removed) from various mailing lists here
for daring to tell similar truths and how to solve such problems.

One point that Alex didn't cover is that the number of bug-reports reached
an all-time low recently. Lower than other projects and even lower than
the linux-kernel. This means that all that's left for devs to do is;
1. solve any new bugs that might arise, as they arise - or
2. work on long-running bugs.

So it might be that your pet-peeve does get sorted out quite soon anyway,
even without any intervention or effort on your part, but it also means
it's a good time to "bump the thread" of any of your favourite peeves to
get them back to the top of the dev's "in tray".

Good excuses to bump a thread without just annoying devs is to give new
information that might help pin-point the precise problem. For example;
1. does the existing bug-report(s) only cover the Windows version? if so
can you find anyone who can see if they can replicate the problem in the
Linux/Mac/Bsd version? or other way around, can you find a bug reported
only for Linux/Mac/Bsd and test to see if the same thing happens on
Windows?
2. can you track down duplicates and mark them as such? (you'll probably
need help from the QA Team to work out how to do that)
3. is it easy to replicate or repeat the problem described in the
bug-report? If so does the bug-report give really easy step-by-step
instructions on how to see the problem happen? If the devs have any
trouble seeing the problem they will probably move on to the next
bug-report very quickly. So make it easy for them to "replicate" the
problem

4. and this is waaaay outside the scope of most people here (i wouldn't
have a clue how to start, for example). Can you help fix any of the other
existing bug-reports? There are some 'Easy Hacks' which might be possible
(beyond me but you might be able to).

Any such clearing up, or anything else that reduces the amount of work the
devs have to do increases the chance of them finding time to work on your
pet-peeve.

Also can you make it interesting somehow? People like interesting
challenges more than boring ones so is there something interesting about it
or something likely to intrigue a dev?

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

#5

Tom,

Such truths are unpopular with "the higher-ups" here and Alex probably got
hassled, off-list, for daring to say it. Alex's answer does tell how to
get the job done, and even hints at a variety of options, but the
"higher-ups" tend to miss that bit and only see the negative.

I can assure that I have received no comments at all in relation to my
post, other than Gary's previous thank you, and your own remarks here.

Alex