[texworks] Current status of Tw development

[Stefan Löffler]

Hi,

On 2010-11-17 11:02, Bruno Voisin wrote:
> Le 17 nov. 2010 à 10:45, Stefan Löffler a écrit :
>
>> Consequently, we should all move forward now and resume working on the
>> next big goal for Tw: the 0.4 stable release. This means a lot of
>> testing, and probably fixing some bugs. This also means that until the
>> 0.4 release, you shouldn't expect any new major features. It's all about
>> stability now, and rounding off scripting in its current state.
> That's great news indeed!
>
> One thing which requires clarification too in this coming release is printing: AFAIK there's an unofficial patch adding printing for Windows which has been included in MikTeX, and since for many users TeX for Windows is MikTeX then printing has become a de facto feature of TeXworks.
>
> It would be great if the issue could be clarified in the forthcoming release, so that the Windows, Linux and Mac version of TeXworks become on par again, with either all or none offering printing, and if they do then with a consistent UI across platforms.

I am well aware of the patch, as I wrote it myself ;). The problem is
that right now, printing doesn't work reliably on all platforms (I don't
even know if it runs on Mac at all) and is certainly not up to usual
standards. This problem is particularly pronounced on Windows, where,
AFAIK, it depends on the kind of printer and/or printer driver you use
whether the result is looking good and is produced in a reasonable time
or is looking crappy (pixelized) and takes forever to print.

So, this patch exists, and if the MiKTeX developers choose to use it,
this is up to them. But for the official code base, I don't think the
patch is ready as the result can be unpredictable (for the average
user), and depends on certain features and programs that may or may not
be available on the user's system. From my current POV, printing will
therefore not be part of the official 0.4 stable release, sorry.

-Stefan

PS: By the way, Tw's primary goal is not to replace other dedicated
(free) pdf viewers out there. There are many excellent ones that have a
much larger feature set than the Tw previewer. Its primary goal is to
provide just that: a quick and easy previewer for the final document to
facilitate the work.