AbiWord 1.0.3 "Désir Satisfait" Release Notes

These release notes describe changes, system requirements, installation instructions, known issues, and feedback for AbiWord 1.0.3. These release notes are updated when we receive feedback, so please check back for new information.

Please note that these are a little more verbose than last time in an effort to keep the userbase as well informed as possible. Also that as usual noone is accredited here because the vast majority of these items took a team effort, and noone should be accidentally left out. For an incomplete list of credits, see CREDITS.TXT.

• What's New, Improved, or Just Different.
  • Long you've eagerly waited, and now it's here! A huge number of bug fixes (who knew it had so many bugs?), performance improvements, and new nifty niceties.
    
  • Build System
    • Plugins
    • New plugin build system, backported from the development branch (nextgen.sh)
    • Fixed the AbiMagick plugin build, which sometimes failed due to a syntax error.
    • Fixed Gdict plugin in non-gnome-enabled builds.
    • Fixed AbiSDW importer build on win32 (msvc6 issue).
    • Plugin build is now more flexible regarding placement of AbiWord source (--with-abiword=DIR).
    • Told AbiSDW where to find peer module wv.
    • Cleaned up optimizer settings in (Free/Open/Net)BSD build.
    • The pspell installation's validity is now checked when configuring using --with-pspell.
    • Fixed libxml2 build interaction with wv.
    • Cleaned out remnants of the no longer used ask installer.
    • Fixed iconv-related build bustage on FreeBSD.
    • (Free/Open/Net)BSD build now defaults to peer libiconv.
    • QNX build now uses shared zlib and libpng.
    • There was some simplification and update of the peer module wv build system.
    • The patch for libjpeg builds on win32 was merged in.
    • Peer module libpng is now a build option for unix.
    • The compiler pacifier (ABI_OPT_PACIFY_COMPILER) has been heavily enhanced.
    • Realcleaning has been altered to affect all OBJDIRs, so it is no longer required that all the usual flags be set when just realcleaning (realclean really cleans).
    • The debug build macros have been enhanced.
    • Fixed sometimes-fatal syntax in peer module expat config.
    • Environmental C(XX)FLAGS are now properly propogated (3674).
    • Fixed static build on unix.
    • Lots of osf/digital/tru64 build fixes.
    • Fix for non-perl builds that couldn't build with perl bindings if they wanted to.
    • No more accidental -g -O2 when not asked for in configure.
    • Rpm specfile
    • No BuildArch flags.
    • Correct dictionary files.
    • Gdict plugin now enabled by default.
  • Application and Code
    • Fixed 3351 (BiDi behavior), at least some of 3171 (for real), 3604(T602 importer), 3593 (code syntax with scandir), 3567 (html exporter generation of incorrect tags), 3565 (status bar cut off languages with verbose expressions), 3592 (putenv portability), 3608 and 3618 (pointless comparisons of an unsigned int with zero), 3095 (font path instability with repetitive entries), 3638 (crash on semi-bogus imports), 3523 (funky icons with aiksaurus), 3324 (newline character erasing crash), 3587 (adjacent superscript and subscript), 3722 (rtl dominance crash), 3507(printing screen colors), 1928 (context menu problem), 3122 (spell checker learning hyperlinked words), 2698 (hyperlink status bar text), 3590 (duplicate accelerator), 3089 (case conversion en mass), 3008 (cursor focus in win32 hyperlink dialog), 3060 (hyperlink offset), 3582 (multiline hyperlink display), 3109 (hyperlink insertion selection check)(not all platforms), 2715 (crash on zoom), 3584 (win32 encoding dialog input focus), 3802 (XSL-FO exporter faulty tags), 3827 (docs with jpegs), 1319 (increase indent off page crash), 3360 (handle rtfs that aren't fully spec compliant), 3330 (forcing of gcc flags to other compilers), 3663 (wrong parameter passing to linker), 3889 (Yiddish spell checking), 3537 (crash on zoom with header/footer), 3781 (downgrading abiword causes the profile to crash it), 3940 (perl bindings and perl 5.8).
      
    • Lots of memory leak fixes, as well as some rather significant speed enhancements.
    • Fixed some problems related to the zero margin difficulties, comma delimited fractions, and setlocale misuse.
    • Various qnx fix backports.
    • Backported fix for faulty syntax in the html exporter.
    • Fixed a crasher of the win32 Aiksaurus plugin.
    • WordPerfect importer now handles superscript, subscript, strike-out, and italic text attributes.
    • English dictionary update (does not affect pspell builds).
    • Fix default geometry, handle profile geometry better, take geometry runtime paramter (the last being 1124).
    • All snprintfs (which caused problems on some unix variants) have been removed from unix or xp code, except in peer module psiconv.
    • DocBook exporter now properly handles abw headings, plain text, and page breaks (the last being 2734).
  • Internationalization-specific (does not affect other aspects of the app)
  • Nynorsk (nn-NO) translation updated.
  • Ukrainian (uk-UA) translation and profile updated.
  • Basque (eu-ES) translation.
  • Bulgarian (bg-BG) update.
  • Romanian (ro-RO) translation.
  • Catalan (ca-ES) update.
  • Documentation
  • Massive French (fr-FR) documentation goodness.
  • Documentation build system fixes.
  • New English screenshots.
  • Documentation on adding documentation.
  • Cleaned up deprecated docs.
  • Small document on document creation.
  • Index (for en-US).
  • Toolbar help.
  • List howto.

• System Requirements
  • AbiWord is fast and lean, leaving a very small footprint despite its wonderful features. It does not take much to run this word processor.
  • Detailed system requirements are available at http://www.abisource.com/support/require/
• Installation
  • Installation instructions are available at http://www.abisource.com/download/index.phtml?all=1
  • There is also help in the source distribution if you choose to build from source.
  • Downloads may be found at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=15518
  • Additionally, many flavors of Unix or Unix-like environment carry AbiWord or have it in their ports collection.
• Known Issues
  • There are some mysterious printing bugs, particularly on Win32 platforms, that we have not been able to track down because they are rare and not reproducible by the developers. Please give us as much information as possible if you encounter these, but when posting to bugzilla use the bug(s) that already exist instead of filing a new one. This is easier on us and you.
• Feedback
  • To request a feature or suggest an idea, see http://www.abisource.com/contribute/suggest/
  • For support, see http://www.abisource.com/support/
  • We cannot stress enough that while we want to find and fix bugs, duplicate reports only slow us down and divide resources. Please check for prior reports and add your comments there.
  • We love CONSTRUCTIVE feedback. Be friendly, appropriate, and patient. It always helps to counter pointing out a problem by pointing out something you like. Developers will be much more eager to help.
• How to Contribute
  • See http://www.abisource.com/contribute/
  • AbiWord is free and open source. The developers are volunteers, and resources are limited. Any help is appreciated.