Chasing the Platypus!

Working Through Defects List

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 18:33:34 -0700

Working our way through the list of known defects. They’re posted in JIRA at Codehaus and consist of small problems or ones that occur infrequently.

Previous post on fixing a defect with font handling was one of these. Now have closed PLATYPUS-64 and PLATYPUS-61, which both had to do with line spacing after a code listing and a bullet list, respectively.

Once the defects have been taken care of, it’s likely that we’ll release v. 0.2.4 as a bug-fix update of 0.2.2.

Fixed Two Small Bugs in Font Handling (PDF)

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 02:08:00 -0700

The changes to fix font handling in v. 0.2.2 led to two small defects that are fixed now. Both of them related to how the iText library handles font registration. I think/hope/pray that the font issues can be laid to rest now, once and for all. (PLATYPUS-62 in JIRA)

v. 0.2.2 Released

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 01:26:11 -0700

v. 0.2.2 has been released. It’s available for download along with docs and source code here.

New features include:

* URLs — you can add clickable URLs to your documents. These can be raw URLs or they can be hidden under cover text.

* Code and Listings — you can easily specify in-line code as well as code listings. Code in listings can optionally have numbered lines, and the lines can be numbered every 1,2, 3, etc. lines—as you tastes dictate.

* Bullet lists — Bullet lists can be nested and the bullet character for each list is user-selectable.

* Save and restore current format — if you switch formats frequently, you can save (and later restore) the current format with a single command.

* Many more symbols and special characters have been added.

* Better Linux support. Files and configuration directories are now Linux friendly.

* HTML output (preliminary release of this plug-in)

Fixed Font Problem in PDF

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:00:00 -0700

A show-stopper bug (PLATYPUS-42) finally bit the dust. It involved how Platypus loaded fonts into the iText library. The result was that every so often, the wrong variant of the typeface would be used (such as italics, rather than bold). This was finally fixed and it appears all font loading is working correctly.

HTML moving to XHTML in v. 0.2.2 RC1

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 02:12:17 -0700

Atul is doing a lot of work to get the HTML plugin to generate XHTML that passes the W3C validator with no errors.

This format refinement will help in using the same plugin as the basis of the eBook plugin.

v. 0.2.2 RC1 Posted

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

It’s posted here. Please let us know if you run into any difficulties. We hope to have the final version out in 30 days.

Thanks!

Last few fixes, updates to docs. Getting ready for RC1

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Doing the last things necessary to get v. 0.2.2 RC1 out the door in the next few days.

Feature Freeze for v. 0.2.2

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:40:29 -0700

Now working on testing and documentation.

Expecting to release an RC1 version shortly.

Completed Bullet Lists (Nestable, User-Selectable Bullet Character)

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 13:04:52 -0700

Implementation of bullet lists complete—they’re nestable and the user can select the bullet character for each list). PLATYPUS-44 on JIRA.

Only need to write a few more unit tests.

Initial Implementation of Bullet Lists Done

Fri, 21 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Implemented an unordered bullet list with (so far) a fixed bulled character of “-” and an indent of 1/4”. To do: Correct processing of embedded bullet lists; allow bullet character to be specified. Eventually, enable specification of width of indent.

Lists are started by the [list] command and terminated by the [-list] command. Each item in the list is terminated by a [] marker. So:

The four cardinal directions are:

[list]north[]
south[]
east[]
west[]
[-list]

Began Work on Bulleted Lists

Sat, 15 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

When done, should have nestable bulleted lists with user-specifiable bullet character in PDF.

URLs with Cover Text Now Working in PDF Plugin

Thu, 06 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

PDF plugin can now print clickable raw URLs and URLs with cover text. More testing needed, but initial test passed successfully.

Agreement on Features for Next Release (v. 0.2.2)

Sat, 01 May 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Long talk among contributors, deciding what features to include in the sprint to May 31. Feature addition will be done during this sprint.

Then, till June 15th bug testing and fixing, followed by release of RC1 on June 15th.

Expect to ship finalized release on 30 June. List of features:

http://docs.codehaus.org/display/PLATYPUS/Upcoming+Features+in+v.+0.2.2

All new features and to-do items added to JIRA.

Comments on feature selection welcome!

Updated to iText v. 2.1.7 from v. 2.1.3

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Seamless upgrade—added the lib, made the changes to build.xml, and deleted the old lib. All tests and the CI build worked immediately. Sometimes, I really like automation!

The goal of the upgrade is to see whether it resolves some of the problems I’ve been running into with fonts in the PDF plugin. Testing over the next few days will clarify this.

Finished Implementation of Code Listings

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Basic implementation now done. Fully documented in the user guide.

Have to squash a couple of bugs (that have been entered into JIRA) and write unit tests. Hoping I can finish this completely this week, and so close out this feature for v. 0.2.2.

Doing the Final Inventory of Next Release

Sun, 18 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

In discussion with Atul to identify exactly what features will be in the v. 0.2.2 coming out soon for testing. Going over the inventory, adding whatever has to still be added, removing what won’t be ready in time, and writing tests.

We have a call scheduled this weekend to finalize the list and give each other our respective work assignments and try to guestimate the actual release dates of the RC1 and RC2 test releases.

Removed Windows Dependencies in Config Dir Path

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

A Linux user pointed out a hard-coded backslash in several places where the path to the config file is specified. Also found a hard-coded backslash in the build.xml file.

In the code, checked the slash convention of the running platform. In build.xml changed them to forward slashes, which both Windows and Linux can understand.

Cf. PLATYPUS-37

Removed Plugin Dependency on PDF Plugin

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:00:00 -0700

The new work on RTF and HTML plugins has brought to light some design decisions that need to be fixed, namely, ones where a function that is needed by multiple plugins is located inside the PDF plugin.

Fixed several of these dependencies; one of which compromised the build of the HTML plugin. The change has been tested and the plugin can now be compiled with no dependencies on any other plugin.

Restructured Plugin Implementation to Use More Abstraction

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0700

Commands are now generally abstract classes from which plugins derive their own concrete implementations. This design idea, from Atul Khot, should save a lot of duplication of code.

Code Listings Progressing

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0800

The PDF plugin now prints code listings with line numbers and correctly skips ahead by the number of tokens found before the [-code] token.

The skipping ahead is a bit of a hack that needs to be revisited once the whole code command is finished.