after opacity
Sun Jun 3 15:00:42 EDT 2012
I mentioned having some trouble yesterday installing Pinta 1.3 from the software repository. I wanted to let the maintainers know so they could fix the repository or update the directions, but the email address on the website didn't work. Most of the addresses were about fixing problems in the software, not problems with the website, but after more hunting around I found an address for one of the maintainers. And to my surprise, I got a reply before I went to bed. He had upgraded to the latest Ubuntu release (12.04, aka Precise), but he's been sorting out other issues and had not tried the install steps. He too found a problem, and my change worked for him, and he's updated the web page with a separate step for this Ubuntu release.
Just fixed another upgrade problem - my email reader Alpine was unable to display Image/JPEG attachments. I found my way to the /etc/mailcap file, which tells email programs how to display diverse attachment types. (As people find new things to attach to email, you can add entries here to tell your mail reader what program knows how to process the data.) There is no application named "image-viewer" on my system, so that cue didn't work. I did recently install a viewer named "feh", but for some reason it isn't working. I eventually worked out that the default viewer, launched by the file browser, is "Eye of Gnome", aka /usr/bin/eog for those of you who need an executable file name. I made a personal ~/.mailcap file with this change, and Alpine can now launch the display program.
How are ordinary people (i.e. people who don't make their living making computers work) supposed to figure this stuff out? Granted, ordinary people wouldn't be using Alpine in the first place, but why should someone have to be a command-line fan to even know that non-GUI email readers exist? And ordinary people do use (e.g.) image editors (like Pinta or GIMP, both mentioned yesterday as lagging the current versions), and need to be able to install current versions.
[15:57:57]
I have successfully downloaded and compiled feh 2.5, replacing 2.2-1 installed by the Ubuntu Software Center. feh 2.5 works, and works for Alpine too through the mailcap entry. But again, we can't seriously expect non-computer people to do this.
[This entry was originally posted as http://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/518779.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]
I mentioned having some trouble yesterday installing Pinta 1.3 from the software repository. I wanted to let the maintainers know so they could fix the repository or update the directions, but the email address on the website didn't work. Most of the addresses were about fixing problems in the software, not problems with the website, but after more hunting around I found an address for one of the maintainers. And to my surprise, I got a reply before I went to bed. He had upgraded to the latest Ubuntu release (12.04, aka Precise), but he's been sorting out other issues and had not tried the install steps. He too found a problem, and my change worked for him, and he's updated the web page with a separate step for this Ubuntu release.
Just fixed another upgrade problem - my email reader Alpine was unable to display Image/JPEG attachments. I found my way to the /etc/mailcap file, which tells email programs how to display diverse attachment types. (As people find new things to attach to email, you can add entries here to tell your mail reader what program knows how to process the data.) There is no application named "image-viewer" on my system, so that cue didn't work. I did recently install a viewer named "feh", but for some reason it isn't working. I eventually worked out that the default viewer, launched by the file browser, is "Eye of Gnome", aka /usr/bin/eog for those of you who need an executable file name. I made a personal ~/.mailcap file with this change, and Alpine can now launch the display program.
How are ordinary people (i.e. people who don't make their living making computers work) supposed to figure this stuff out? Granted, ordinary people wouldn't be using Alpine in the first place, but why should someone have to be a command-line fan to even know that non-GUI email readers exist? And ordinary people do use (e.g.) image editors (like Pinta or GIMP, both mentioned yesterday as lagging the current versions), and need to be able to install current versions.
[15:57:57]
I have successfully downloaded and compiled feh 2.5, replacing 2.2-1 installed by the Ubuntu Software Center. feh 2.5 works, and works for Alpine too through the mailcap entry. But again, we can't seriously expect non-computer people to do this.
[This entry was originally posted as http://syntonic-comma.dreamwidth.org/518779.html on Dreamwidth (where there are
comments).]