Update Package: Xiphos 3.0

[Paolo Melchiorre]

Binary package hint: gnomesword

http://xiphos.org

Release 3.0
08 Feb 2009

Xiphos begins life, as the former GnomeSword.

We have changed our name to Xiphos because GnomeSword was deemed too
obscure, especially considering our anticipated new user base. Xiphos
("ξίφος") is one of several Greek words for "sword". Pronunciation of
the name Xiphos can be learned from a sample audio file you will find
in share/doc/xiphos; approximately, "ksee-fos."

This release represents a huge new chapter in our program's life.

Per-platform notes for this release.

 1. Linux:
    a. In the most recent Fedora and Ubuntu releases, the invocation of
       the editor (personal commentary, prayer list/journal) will induce
       several harmless warning messages to occur.

 2. Windows:
    a. Xiphos runs under Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and 7-beta.
    b. A few additional fonts are included with the installer (FreeSerif
       and LinuxLibertine) and they are correctly installed, but they may
       not immediately become available on installation completion. We
       do not yet understand why. At worst, a reboot is needed.
    c. The module list "treeview" sometimes becomes unnavigable by mouse
       clicks. This seems to be a Windows-specific flaw in the port of
       the GTK library which drives the treeview. If it occurs, it will
       be evident as soon as Xiphos starts; simply restart it.
    d. The font used in the previewer should reflect the intended font of
       the module whose content is being previewed there. If Xiphos
       starts up with the previewer embedded in the sidebar, then such
       font choices are not properly respected.
    e. Print preview does not work, though printing does.

Major new features, operational improvements, and bugfixes:

 1. Windows port. It is very nearly complete; only a couple features
    are missing. Most notably, they are the MozEmbed display engine
    and the "read aloud" facility using Festival text-to-speech. We
    anticipate both of these features becoming available in a later
    3.x release but there was simply not enough time to get everything
    done for this release.

 2. A fabulous new look, with the support of professional graphics
    designers having done a facelift of our graphics, both in the
    program and on the website.

 3. Configure with --enable-paratab to obtain the detached parallel
    window as another tab and to put the previewer into the sidebar.
    See the View menu.

 4. Standard module repository setup for first-time users.

 5. Image resize enabled by default.

 6. Commentary-by-chapter display, as a commentary module option,
    rather than just per-verse commentary.

 7. Consistent dialog usages: Y/N questions and file browsers.

 8. Module manager: Remembers previous settings. New remote source is
    set as current. Tooltips over icons in module manager lists.
    Visual improvements by showing repository in use and separating
    full module lists from limited update/uninstalled lists. Now
    functions correctly with both shared and personal storage areas.

 9. Compatibility with forthcoming Sword engine updates for dynamic
    versification ("dv11n"). Future modules will support e.g.
    deuterocanonical books in Catholic Bibles.

10. More uniform module option support in parallel window.

11. Dictionary links auto-display in the previewer, after the
    fashion of Strong's and morphology references.

12. Better Help menu selections: Online chat support, bug reporting,
    mailing list pointers.

13. Better search term highlighting in both sidebar and dialog search.

14. Double-click navigation of search results entries.

15. Improved/fixed search abort. Assume "AND" semantic for sidebar
    multiple word search.

16. Countless internal cleanups, efficiency improvements, and
    bugfixes, the need for many of which was exposed by the Windows
    port effort.

17. Additions to the manual, especially for instruction on original
    language research and how to get help.

18. Better integration of image support with ImageMagick libraries.

19. Respect for configuration-specified font choices (Font= and
    Fontsize= in module configuration files).

20. Improvements to build-time configuration support.

21. Fixed fast search ("lucene") index creation.
    NOTE: The implication of this bugfix is that any existing
    index is in error. You should re-create all module indexes.

Bug reports addressed since 2.4.1:
2264199 Long custom Module lists make search gui too wide
2264209 Scrolling to next/previous chapter no longer works
2264276 Words with preceding punctuation dict lookup fails
2267026 Attribute search fails if preceding '0' is in search
2309713 Building with gecko fails on Debian
2334366 Building fails with xulrunner-1.9
2384287 Uninstalling current Bible module causes crashes.
2385811 Gnomesword crashes on attempted studypad sync
2390811 Search fails when Gnomesword builds indexes
2412580 Indexing Gnomesword-created modules fails
2413029 Printing User Created Modules ignores markup
2416023 Local Source Reports Incorrect Installation Status
2423941 Printing, then navigating genbook causes crash
2423950 Module Manager doesn't refresh after local installation
2430285 gtkhtml parallel view issues
2471807 gtkhtml previewer font
2471811 Bookmarks do not work for user-created modules
2471830 First Run, First Tab Navigation issue
2474005 Genbooks do not allow navigation from address bar
2486766 Mozembed Parallel View doesn't respect cross-reference
2486769 Parallel view right-click->copy does nothing
2532349 mozembed doesn't respect default dictionary
2539788 [PATCH] Update FSF address

New feature requests pending:
2533238 Copy verse functionality (like e-sword)

Feature requests closed:
2409256 Ability to scroll to the next chapter
2407301 Double Click Search Results to Display Verse

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Thank you for this nice report. This will help to pass this through feature freeze. Package has been uploaded to REVU http://revu.ubuntuwire.com/p/xiphos and the packaging branch is also available in bzr (gonna link now). Attaching packaging as well.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Packaging has been prepared by Debian/Ubuntu Packaging Team.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Orig tarball can be fetched using uscan.

Or to build simply use

bzr bd lp:~pkgcrosswire/xiphos/ubuntu

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

Upstream changelog diff.

[Dimitri John Ledkov (xnox)]

It's in Karmic now.