[Solved] Release 3.4

[MrProgrammer]

As many of you who have used the forums know, one of the most frequently requested enhancements to Calc is expanding the number of DataPilot fields (Issue 5759 DataPilot: allow more than 8 data fields from 2002). Previewing the 3.4 features, I see that this long-awaited request will be included there. Release 3.4 has several other enhancements that you will want to take a look at. I think many people will like the improvement to CSV processing: Leave out unnecessary quotes in CSV export

For now, we only see OpenOffice.org 3.4 Alpha Release mentioned at OpenOffice.org, but there are some exciting objectives being proposed for Beta, too. One of my own interests (see topic Format cells with engineering notation) is that first one. Oracle's OOo developers are discussing all of the ideas below and they may even "borrow" additional enhancements from the LibreOffice development team. LO is open source, after all.

• Add Engineering format to the Calc's Format > Cells > Numbers dialog
  Add AltSearch functionality to Writer's standard Edit > Find & replace dialog
  Allow user-specified date format in headers and footers
  Implement SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, and IFERROR in Calc (like Excel)
  User-customizible icons for OOo files
  Implement Excel 2007 style multi-string value filter
  Save Writer documents in several eBook formats
  Standalone Impress presentations (view in web browser without having OpenOffice installed)
  Correctly sort a range containing references to itself (fix for Issue 63781)
  Ability to open PDF for editing with Writer
  Automatic formula simplification in OOo Math
  Add Calendar and Address Book components
  Calculate derivatives and integrals of formulas in OOo Math
  Update the database included with OOo (currently HSQLDB) to an Oracle database
  Intelligent macro generator (watches what you do and creates macros to perform actions it sees frequently)
  Add Tools > Language > Translate to Writer (web service, translated via Wikipedia)

[Villeroy]

Well, in your part of the world it's still April 01 2011.
Thank you for the inteligent macro recorder. We all will enjoy it.

[MrProgrammer]

As many of you who have used the forums know, one of the most frequently requested enhancements to Calc is expanding the number of DataPilot fields (Issue 5759 DataPilot: allow more than 8 data fields from 2002). Previewing the 3.4 features, I see that this long-awaited request will be included there. Release 3.4 has several other enhancements that you will want to take a look at. I think many people will like the improvement to CSV processing: Leave out unnecessary quotes in CSV export

For now, we only see OpenOffice.org 3.4 Alpha Release mentioned at OpenOffice.org, but there are some exciting objectives being proposed for Beta, too. One of my own interests (see topic Format cells with engineering notation) is that first one. Oracle's OOo developers are discussing all of the ideas below and they may even "borrow" additional enhancements from the LibreOffice development team. LO is open source, after all.

I forgot that the forum time zone is user-specified and realized too late that I should have posted this earlier in the day so that more people would see it as an April 1st post.

Congratulations on reaching 10K posts, Villeroy.

[Villeroy]

Huh? 10K posts feel like 80th birth day. Thanks anyway.

[steveperry0]

When is this happening please? The page that is supposed to give the information is incomprehensible or full of spurious data.

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/OOoRelease34

Also when can we look forward to the mac version appearing, in beta and full release?


More generally, it would be good to know what is happening with Open Office. Searching to find these answers, it looks like everything froze in time somewhere in the spring of 2011 and nothing much has been updated since - pages or software. Is 3.3.0 the end of the line, that is gradually going to fade, or is there more to look forward to?

Many thanks either way, and stay happy
s

[Hagar Delest]

Check the dev mailing list, you'll see that there is a lot of work under progress.

[steveperry0]

Thanks Hagar

That's good to know. There seems to be a bit of a communication breakdown though.

It is partly that all these things are out of date - all the dates on the schedule (link above) are May 2011 or before. They really don't help in finding out when things are likely to happen.

It is partly that the information presented isn't straightforward for non technical users.

Am not trying to be useless or a burden - had to do a web search to find the dev mailing list, and got through to this,

http://incubator.apache.org/openofficeo ... iling-list

and searched this

http://search.gmane.org/?query=release+ ... .ooo.devel

and looked at the other two lists, but it looks like a needle in a haystack job to find the release dates in all of that.

Doesn't it make sense to keep the page referenced above up to date? It is the obvious place to look, after all, and presumably helps keep people recruited, engaged and excited.

[RoryOF]

There is as yet no definite release date; all we can say is "Real Soon Now". It is the intention that the release should be right rather than soon.

[crusader]

There is as yet no definite release date; all we can say is "Real Soon Now".

Which is one of the reasons I have hooked up with LO: I am not convinced I will be around at the dawn of the 23rd century, but I may surprise myself. (22nd century is reserved for beta testing).
I would much rather have several minor frequent upgrades -- some of which may need corrections -- than a couple of major upgrades (even if they are rock solid -- which cannot be guaranteed) years (centuries?) apart ...

[FJCC]

Well, it is a matter of taste. "Little" bugs that mess up my work make me crazy. I use this software at work and I'm more interested in reliability than new features that I probably don't need. Of course, some of the new features are very worthwhile to someone, even me sometimes, but bugs and crashes can be disastrous.

[orangeli]

FJCC - totally agree. There is an optimum point of features beyond which any software becomes bloated.
Just like in mobile phones - you can surf the internet, listen to music, take pictures etc. but still spelling words (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie...) when talking.
Better improve sound quality than add more features, after all it is just a phone...

[steveperry0]

There is as yet no definite release date; all we can say is "Real Soon Now". It is the intention that the release should be right rather than soon.

Many thanks Rory. That's great news.

And to everybody else too. Agree with that it needs to be right before release, and that more frequent releases would be nice, even if less ambitious in scope if that works for the good people doing the hard work of development.

The thing that seems to be missing in all this is the beta versions, which just might help keep everyone happy. Where are they? Went through a lot of iterations prior to 3.3.0 being released, and used to put in bug reports (though stuck to the tried and true releases for the critical things). But clicking on release candidates here:

http://www.openoffice.org/download/other.html

just sends you round an endless loop... Guess there aren't any yet?

Thanks to all for the great work and apologies all round for the slack response - off line yesterday.

[RoryOF]

Apache Developer builds have been available for some time; progress is being made towards a Release Candidate or public Beta, but at the last minute another serious bug has cropped up which requires all platform testing and possibly rebuilding the fixed code for all platforms. The code revision due to the transition to Apache has been so extensive that it has introduced more transient bugs than normal. Hopefully, when this release issues, these will have been eliminated and the next release can concentrate on serious enhancements to the functionality.

[steveperry0]

Rory

Thanks again. Hadn't realised the significance of the migration to Apache, so understand the long pause between releases much better now (have just browsed it up). Good luck with the bug, and look forward to being able to help with some bug reporting when the beta candidate is stable enough for release.

[orangeli]

The thing that seems to be missing in all this is the beta versions, which just might help keep everyone happy.

Version 3.3 had ten(!) release candidates and that sure didn't keep me happy.

[steveperry0]

Version 3.3 had ten(!) release candidates and that sure didn't keep me happy.

Sorry it didn't though am not sure why. Agree it was a lot of downloading, but beta testing is beta testing, it's good to help and contribute, and there was always the previous release to use when its not convenient. Seemed quite fun to me, anyway, and rather that than having to wait longer for the beta.