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OpenJade 1.3.1 (Re: Re: Print backend: problems withtable layouts


> > <rant>
> > Unfortunately, the OpenJade maintainers seem to be completely
> > neglecting it.
>
>Tsk. openjade 1.3.1 will be released shortly.

My apologies.  I saw no signs of recent activity, at the sourceforge site.  
Furthermore, the most recent release, 1.3, had been out for over 2 years, 
despite known bugs + fixes.


> >   I don't care about new features, but one might expect they'd
> > at least do a maintenance release including back-ported fixes,
> > for problems subsequently fixed, and patches, like the one I
> > mentioned.
>
>The main purposes of openjade 1.3.1 are twofold:
>
>     - Incorporate all the fixes that have been in common use in
>the years since 1.3 was released (mostly in the jadetex backend
>including the fixed table support)
>     - Provide support for newer build environments (gcc, automake,
>libtool etc) so that openjade can be built in a modern environment
>(be it linux, macosx, bsd, UNIX or Win32).
>
>
> > Yes, DSSSL is pretty much dead, but OpenJade is the world's
> > best/most complete processor (to my knowledge), and to neglect
> > it so severely (i.e. not doing maintenance releases with
> > existing fixes), when  people undoubtedly still depend on it, is
> > irresponsible, IMO.
>
>I appreciate your frustration - as it is one that I share, But
>rather than just being rude about a group of unpaid volunteers I
>decided to do something about it.

Again, I apologize if there has been work going on, behind the scenes.  
However, I was also basing my criticism on the fact that no reported bug has 
been closed or even assigned, in the last 10 months.  I submitted several 
bug reports, myself, some even including patches.

If someone takes the time to track down a problem, in a totally foreign code 
base of a piece of open source software, and submit a patch, I think the 
maintainer(s) have a responsibility to be responsive.  After all, that's 
what makes open source work.  It's also primarily responsible for the 
consistently high degree quality of open source projects, upon which people 
can build or stake their livelihood.


I agree that my criticism was a bit harsh, but I don't feel it was entirely 
unjustified.  I have a couple of small Open Source projects, myself, and I 
feel I have a responsibility to my users to fix known bugs (especially ones 
for which people submit patches) and do maintenance releases.  And, my 
projects have orders of magnitude smaller user communities than OpenJade's 
(which is still getting over 1,000 downloads/month).

Furthermore, there are 12 developers listed, 7 of which are admins, for 
OpenJade.  With nothing happening, on such a large project, over such a long 
period of time, it sure has the signs of being abandoned.


>If you want to try things out, point your CVSROOT at openjade's cvs
>repository and do
>
>     cvs co -r RELEASE-1_3_1-pre1
>
>Then you could be constructive by providing feedback to the
>openjade-devel mailing list. [since 1.3.1-pre1 there are been quite a
>few more fixes, so I would expect a 1.3.1-pre2 before the final
>release]

Thanks.  I'll try that.  But, again, where was it announced?  The last 
announcement of a useful CVS state was 21 months ago, and there were reports 
that it was excessively slow, and had other problems.


>Ian.

Anyhow, I really *do* appreciate this maintenance release.


Matt


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