The disgrace of (the) Kompozer (package maintainer)

[Caroline Ford]

What you need to do is work out the package name of the version in  
jaunty.

I looked on packages.ubuntu.com and it ends with 0ubuntu6. This means  
that there is a maintainer in Ubuntu (and unusually not in Debian). it  
does seem that the fixed version is in karmic so we need to arrange a  
backport.

What we don't need is a needs packaging bug, as they are for programs  
that don't exist in any version in the repositories. This is more of  
an update.

Caroline


Sent from a mobile device.

On 4 Sep 2009, at 17:10, Patrick Goetz <pgoetz at mail.utexas.edu> wrote:

> We are currently using Jaunty 9.04 (64 and 32-bit) on our production
> desktop systems.  A few weeks ago a user asked me for a recommendation
> for an easy to use html editor, and I suggested KompoZer.   
> (Suggestions?
>  I think I've tried most of them and found them lacking; the original
> Netscape Composer, now found in SeaMonkey still seems to be the best  
> for
> fast, simple editing of static HTML pages by naive users.)
>
> The version of KompoZer in 9.04 universe is 0.7.10.  The user came  
> back
> a few days later complaining about bugs.  I didn't believe him until I
> tried it myself.  Sure enough, just hovering the mouse over certain  
> menu
> items (e.g. file -> recent pages or formatting -> fonts) make the
> program crash every time -- the editing window simply disappears.   
> Feel
> free to try it yourself.
>
> It took exactly 15 seconds to confirm that this is a known bug (in
> Intrepid!) and another 5 seconds to find out what it was.  Tracking  
> down
> the bug involves the following complicated steps: google for the work
> "kompozer" and then click on the first link which appears, the  
> kompozer
> project home page, where one finds the following text right in the
> middle of the main page:
>
> "Linux users: KompoZer 0.7.10 is not compatible with GTK 2.14 and
> higher, hence the crashes. Please have a look at KompoZer 0.8 alpha."
>
> Now, is it finally appropriate for me to say WTF?  Is the package
> maintainer for this package in a coma?  It shouldn't take more than  
> one
> use of the program to realize that there is a problem:  if the mouse
> pointer comes in contact with the test "recent pages" the program
> crashes.  Changing the font, a frequently invoked action, is  
> completely
> impossible.
>
> Since we all care about linux/Ubuntu on this list, I presume that I
> don't have to say that we simply can't afford to continue to have  
> these
> kinds of embarrassing basic quality control issues.  If a package  
> isn't
> really being maintained, then it shouldn't appear in any of the main
> repositories.  What's the definition of "really being maintained"?   
> For
> starters, trying to run the program at least one time with the new
> distribution before publishing.
>
>
>
>
>
>
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