On Mon, 6 Aug 2007 15:06:12 +0200 Craig Bradney <cbradney at scribus.info> dijo:
> > ----- Original Message ----- > > Subject: Re: [Scribus] Scribus 1.3.4 in Ubuntu amd64 repositories > > From: John R. Culleton <john at wexfordpress.com> > > To: scribus at nashi.altmuehlnet.de > > Date: 06-08-2007 14:32 > > > > > > On Monday 06 August 2007, Craig Ringer wrote: > > > John R. Culleton wrote: > > > > On Monday 06 August 2007, Craig Ringer wrote: > > > >> There should be no need to build Scribus from source. You can if > > > >> you like, but it's probably nicer to use packages to do the job. > > > > > > > > One of the strengths of Linux is the ablility to go forward and > > > > backward thorugh versions of a package by downloading tarballs > > > > and copiling them. Packaging systems just get in the way, as the > > > > instant case clearly illustrates. > > > > > > It depends on the user. > > > > In the instant case it depends on Ubuntu. Ubuntu doesn't have the > > stable version in its repository and therefore the user is stuck with > > a mostly unusable unstable version. Either he compiles from source > > or does without Scribus. > > http://www.scribus.net/index.php?name=Sections&req=viewarticle&artid=4&page=1 > > indicates as Craig has outlined. debian and derivative users who want > stability should use the "scribus" package. Oleksandr already pointed out that URL, and I had already found it myself. The problem is that the scribus.net and tagancha.org repositories do not work, at least not in my Feisty amd64 computer - the key is wrong, or Synaptic can't find the key. I should also add that the screenshots of Synaptic and the detailed instructions on that URL are for a rather old version of Synaptic, or at least not the one I have in Feisty. This does not matter to me, as I know how to add a repository, but for less skilled debianistas it could be a problem. Even for me it was confusing, because when I was unable to add the repositories I scrolled down to the detailed instructions hoping to find that I had missed a step or something. But the screenshots and instructions were useless to me. Perhaps updating that page should be added to the to-do list. I should add that the problem with the key is that current versions of Synaptic and System > Administration > Software Sources (the latter is just an extraction of the "add repository" code from Synaptic), do not allow me to paste in a key. The only way to add a key is to "import" it. The Import Key button expects a file on my hard drive. I think there is a file on my computer somewhere that contains the list of repositories, but I can't remember what it's called. Perhaps I could add the key manually in there. As it stands, if I add (e.g.) the tagancha repository, when I reload the list I get a popup that says "W: GPG error: http://debian.tagancha.org feisty Release: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 5BC4CFB8EEF818CF." As for the "scribus" package, for Ubuntians that would be 1.2.5-1, which is pretty old. But more importantly, the comment brings up a different issue: How stable is stable? In the world of commercial software upgrades are few and far between, but generally include a lot of new features. The pattern is to release a new version only every couple of years, with massive testing to ensure that only a minor patch or two will be needed after release. The open source world works on a different schedule. Upgrades tend to be very frequent, involving few new features each time, and there is little testing. Indeed, the early adopters *are* the testers. I am not complaining here. (I have to add that comment because so far everyone has assumed that I am complaining about Scribus, which is not the case.) I am merely noting that there is a difference in the way development proceeds. In the case of Scribus, it is difficult for me to tell how stable a given release is. Case in point: I was happily using 1.3.3.8 and it was pretty darn stable. There was an occasional glitch, but it never crashed and I felt confident using it for production work. I was using it to learn Scribus and I had two projects that were in progress. Both are relatively simple and could be redone in another program if it were absolutely necessary - a book cover and a four-page flyer. And then Ubuntu's Update Manager announced that version 1.3.4 was available. That it had been added to the Ubuntu repositories signaled to me that it had reached the stability level of 1.3.3.8. Therefore, I let Update Manager install it, and now here I am with an unusable Scribus.* Even that is not such a big deal, if I only had the option of returning to 1.3.3.8, but Ubuntu has removed the 1.3.3.8 (amd64) .deb from the repositories, and I can't find it online anywhere. Not only that, but I can't find a .deb for 1.3.3.9 or 1.3.3.10 either. I did find a 1.3.3.6, but there's something wrong with the file, as it won't install. Perhaps resolving the problem with the tagancha and scribus repostories would help. *In 1.3.4 the problem is that styles are completely broken. Not just importing styles from a document created in 1.3.3.8, but I am also unable to create a new style in a brand new document correctly. No matter what I do I can't get font size and leading to work properly. That's a showstopper. In sum, there are two issues I am talking about: solving my personal problem of getting back to 1.3.3.8, and a philosophical issue of when a new release should be added to repositories, how it is labeled, and how to make it easy for those using the ng releases to go back to a previous version when they discover that the new one is more beta testing than they are able to tolerate. At the moment, I just want to find the 64-bit .deb for 1.3.3.8.
