[Scribus] Scribus 1.3.4 in Ubuntu amd64 repositories

[John Jason Jordan]

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.