AbiWord Roadmap

Last updated: 9 April 1999, the current tarball is 0.5.3
Please see the notes at the bottom of this list.

0.7.0 0.9.0/1.0.0 Unknown Future

The primary goal of the 0.7.0 release is to introduce the availability of compiled binaries. Accordingly, we're investing effort in polishing the user experience.

We're also trying to be as sure as we can that the file format implemented in this release is the not going to change again. The expectation is that with this release, people may start to use AbiWord more, and we want to take steps to ensure document compatibility.

We'll call AbiWord 0.9.0 when it has [substantially] all of the features we want in our "1.0" release. Accordingly, the list below represents our current plan for the "1.0" feature set. This list is still subject to a certain amount of change.

After sufficient bug fixing on the 0.9.0 code base, we'll call it 1.0.0 and consider it to be a maintenance tree. When we're ready to start adding post-1.0 features, we'll fork a new development tree.

We're not quite sure where these features go yet.

We believe these features are NOT going to be in 1.0.

File format stability

define file format for tables (jeff@abisource.com, eric@abisource.com)
Bugs
bugs 94, 218, 241, 242, 243, 260 (all of which may be related; specially requested by Bob) (jeff@abisource.com)
bug: spaces should not wrap to the beginning of a line (362) (eric@abisource.com)
fix bug 7 (character overhang redraw problems) (eric@abisource.com)
add code to coalesce runs on the fly during text insertion (eric@abisource.com)
Features
headers and footers (eric@abisource.com)
lists (eric@abisource.com)
finish code to insert, delete section breaks
add ability to manipulate page margins, size, orientation
Tree
Abstract ptbl and fmt code into a XAP text layout library for use by multiple AbiSuite apps (eric@abisource.com)
Other
figure out memory usage issues on long text file import (eric@abisource.com)
Binaries (AbiSource staff will take care of all of these)
Define locations of necessary support files in a user installation (dictionaries, sample documents, strings files, Unix fonts)
Define sample documents and design of Help menu. Implement menu and write documents.
installer for Win32
packaging and install scripts for Linux. RPM, DEB, tar/script, etc. (shaw@abisource.com)
setup production builds process, automated builds, version numbering
artwork for splash screen, about box, icon (scott@abisource.com)

Misc GUI work

DLOG: goto
DLOG: word count
DLOG: Format/Paragraph
DLOG: Format/Tabs
DLOG: File/Page Setup (aka Format/Section)
DLOG: Format/Columns
DLOG: Insert/Break
DLOG: Insert/Page Numbers
DLOG: Insert Date,Time
DLOG: Insert Field
DLOG: Insert Symbol
DLOG: spell check
DLOG: Options, with tabs for various kinds of options
View/Toolbars
View/Ruler
View/Status Bar
context menu for images
Context cursors for image and image size
image resize. Involves the addition of "handles" on the corners and edges of the image, when it's selected for resize. Requires mouse interaction and drag code. This should be possible to do entirely in XP code.
Features
superscripts/subscripts
vertical keeps (partially done, in fb_ColumnBreaker.cpp)
horizontal keeps
horizontal rules
Define/implement interaction of clipboard with import/export APIs to allow for copy/paste of formatted text. Support copy/paste of RTF in this manner, verifying that it interoperates with Microsoft Word on Win32 systems.
Spell
Tag by language so spell checker can use the right dictionary
Figure out whether to change dictionary file format (ispell file format is completely dependent upon compiler and platform)
context menu for spell
Import/Export
RTF export
import/export WordPerfect (lansdoct@screech.cs.alfred.edu, shannonw@cygnus.com)
Replace Word97 import code with a more maintainable code base. (justin@ukans.edu)
Layout engine work
show invisibles
paragraph full justification
tables
tabs: center, right
Other
switch to UTF-8 encoding for internal piece table storage (jeff@abisource.com, eric@abisource.com)
Cleanup mapping of Unicode encodings to font encodings, focusing on: bullets, dashes, fancy quotation marks, symbols, dingbats (eric@abisource.com)
online help (in HTML?)
Design and implement a consistent scheme for moving documents between systems (including between differing platforms) and preserving as much of the font information as possible.

Gnome-ify
Qt port, anyone? :-)
MacOS port, anyone? John Brewer (jbrewer@jera.com) has checked in a start on this.
HTML import (michael@surfnetcity.com.au)
Inline marks for bookmarks, TOC, index, etc. (julian.morrison@virgin.net)
Word 97 export
autosave
automatic switching to fancy quotation marks
Experiment with cons as a replacement for our build system. Would this get us faster, more accurate builds on more platforms?
floats
improvements to RTF importer
Tip of the Day

print preview (zoom works as a nice substitute)
SVG graphics
normal view
drop caps
paragraph borders and shading
footnotes
outline mode
decimal-aligned tabs
Table of contents
JavaScript macros
Multilingual document support for CJKV, Hebrew, Arabic
Background color
Threads

Notes

This roadmap changes a lot. More specifically, the status and plan for the project changes a lot, and this roadmap struggles to keep up.
Version numbers use a scheme similar to the Linux kernel: Major.Minor.Patch -- The Major version number indicates the overall version of the app, with differences distinguishing very substantial levels of features. The Minor version number indicates an overall level of features within that Major version. Odd numbered Minor versions are development releases which are not in maintenance. A release with an even numbered Minor version indicates a release which is believed to be stable and which will be maintained even as development of the next version proceeds in a separate source code tree.
There will not be a 0.6.0 release, as the features worked on during the 0.5.x releases will not be placed in a maintenance tree.
There will not be a 0.8.0 release, for the same reason.
This is, in some sense, a To-Do list. However, since it does not include a complete listing of bugs, it should not be regarded as the only listing of work that needs to be done. The difference between a bug and a missing feature can be subtle, at times. We mention a specific bug here under certain circumstances, such as when we know that we'll want it to be fixed for a certain release. In general, you should check our bug database for additional information. The mention of specific bugs in association with specific releases is not intended to imply that those are the only bugs which will get fixed for that release.
In general, this list contains only work which is not yet done. Once it's done, we remove it from this list. If it's partially done, we'll remove it and replace it with a reminder of the part that's not done yet. If you want a summary of what has already been done, we'd suggest our Bonsai or archives of the mailing list.
If you see an email address specified in parenthesis after any item, that's the person we believe is working on it, or who has mentioned an intent to do so. If there's no email address there, we probably don't know who's doing it. Contributors welcome, AbiWord is a Bazaar.
Please notify the mailing list if you see anything on this list which is inaccurate or out-of-date.
If you want to work on something, please mention your intent to do so on the mailing list. This will allow us to avoid clashes and keep this roadmap up to date. Also, most of the features mentioned below have had at least some discussion, so there is a history of assumptions about how each feature should work. We don't have a full, written spec for the behavior of everything, so if you want to uncover those assumptions, you'll have to ask. :-)
The project mailing list is abiword-dev@abisource.com.