[de-discuss] [bug-per-mail] LibreOffice crashes Win 7 64-Bit en system (class: show-stopper) plus detail on installer (class: annoying) plus performance/forms plus new incompatibility/noa-libre

Bug-Report

Hi LibreOffice Team.

Sorry for a bug report this way, but at the moment I don't have the means to do it via bugzilla - 
but and I thought you might still like to get the feedback.

I just installed Libre 4.0 on a Windows 7 professional system, English, that has been running 3.6.4 
for some while (exclusively using Writer via noa-libre from another application).

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(a) Class annoying bug:
The installer of 4.0 removed the 3.6 installation; and if I don't err without asking nor with any 
options to (un)check.

(Standard installer for Windows from main page on website found by Firefox, probably German version 
of LibreOffice.)

This may be fine within a major version number, but if it also changes installation directories, 
it's not so fine any more. Other things might point to the old version, and that means into Nirvana 
right afterwards. I would also have liked to have both versions in parallel, especially, as they 
use two different directory trees.

***********************************************************************

(b) Class show-stopper, plus really serious problem:
As a normal user, starting Writer 4.0, and opening the document that I wanted to try 4.0 with - a 
file with ca. 100+ form elements, plus some macro code, that was made with OpenOffice 2.9x and 
early 3.x (before the Apache/Libre story) and worked fine - would, after some 1:30 min:sec, 
completely crash the system.

I mean: Bluescreen. Crash. Boom. Bang. No fun.

OK, I you may ask: What kind of "operating system" should let itself get crashed like that by an 
application, started by a user? Your point. So maybe I wasn't exactly using an "operating system" 
at that moment.

But on the other hand: In the world of Microsoft Windows, it was years ago that I had the 
impression, that installing an Office Suite - actually the one from Microsoft, back then, would 
introduce changes so deeply inside the "system" that the whole machine could become less stable. 
Actually, this was so much the case that I still am reluctant to install a rather modern MS Office 
on modern Windows systems - even though that much concern may not be warranted any more for their 
products.

Now, Open/LibreOffice should definitely *not* step in *these* shoes!

And if my memory does not betray me, I have never experienced such a thing with OpenOffice (and I 
belong to the people who actually *bought* licenses of StarOffice when they were still expensive) - 
just until I tried Apache 3.4.1 a few weeks ago on this same machine.

I learnt that their online updater might have a flaw. Still, I immediately deinstalled it again, 
because, in their case, on the first attempt, the installer would crash, and on the second attempt, 
opening that said file with their Writer would crash the system.

Now, the same macroscopic appearance when I opened the file with your Libre 4.0 writer. I 
de-installed it - and I'm just re-installing 3.6.5, to replace the 3.6.4 I had before.

I won't continue testing 4.0 at this point, because I don't trust an "operating system" that gets 
crashed by user applications sufficiently to deliberately provoke such crashes...

I still am confident that this crash *would* be reproducible. The fact that it looked like back 
then in Apache 3.4.1, and the expectation that you do exchange code would underly that assumption.

BTW, I did install only the Writer, Calc, Draw, Math components, NOT the online-updater, 
fast-start, and from the extensions, only the PDF-Importer, none of the others. (For Apache 3.4.1, 
I had installed all components IIRC, but actually, I don't want to use them).

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(c) For all versions of LibreOffice I ever tried, including at least, but possibly not limited to 
3.3.4, 3.5.6, 3.6.2, 3.6.4, 4.0:

Said Writer document with the many form elements and code takes some 1:45 ... 5:30, maybe even 
more, on fast i5 or i7 systems to open. And is very slow to use.
(Normal documents are opened in maybe 1..10 seconds on the same system, even when the office 
program is not in memory yet.)

The same document worked flawlessly - i.e.: fast - on OpenOffice 2.95, 3.x and it still opened 
similarly fast in the first ApacheOpenOffice versions (from where I switched to Libre when their 
development processes seemed stalled, and Libre showed a nice layout plus earned preference after I 
reviewed your histories).

It would be very kind, if you could also review what might take so utterly long when a file with 
some 100 form elements (radiobuttons, checkboxes, plain text entry boxes) and macros is 
opened/redrawn. I am very sure that something must have gone wrong in Libre very early with this 
respect.

Here, if you like, I can provide stripped down version of my document at least, if you need it - 
given a few days time. I'm sad I cannot spend much time in tracking the issue down myself, have too 
many open ones (or would have done it already over the last months).

And mind you: The difference between Libre, and the preceding OpenOffice is not something like 
+10%, but... maybe: 10..50 *times* slower.

The same behaviour remains if I re-save the writer form with the same, or several different file 
formats,
but that measurement point may actually not be too meaningfull, because...

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(d) Not important too me, but certainly a large area of possible improvement:
In my tests, for that specific form: What LibreOffice 3.6.x even will have before writing in most 
alternative formats, and show after re-opening, will not have much resemblance with each other. 
Actually, many elements would be missing, dysfunctional, or the layout severely hamperd.

So you might wish to check how form elements pass thru writing/re-reading an *.odt file in(to) 
various other file formats.

Maybe improvements for (c) and (d) could be found at the same time. :-)

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(e) On another system, Libre 4.0 would break the functionality of a noa-libre based other 
application that would work with 3.6.4.
So, Libre 4.0 could not be used as a 3.6.4 replacement, even if it wouldn't have crashed my test 
system.

Actually, the interface could be configured and recognized (which means that some elements of the 
interface would work), but when a document should be opened, the resulting frame would stay empty 
(at least for the few times I tested, for the duration I wanted to wait).

I'll be looking for possible noa-libre updates and their integration into my app before elaborating 
any further on this.

***********************************************************************

Still, thank you very much for your continued work. And - your website looks impressively 
professionally made.

Just one point: Please don't let "marketing" get the lead on the website. Why not place some link 
to a simple feedback form (w/o registration) on the first page?

Sorry again for this large e-mail-only problem feedback, and for combining 4 issues. You're welcome 
to contact me if you have additional questions. My resources are extremely limited, but I would try 
to reply, and as I said, prepare a test document file *if* you indicate you can actually use that 
for anything.

Thank you for your work, and for your mere reading this input of mine!

Good luck + Kind regards, Joerg

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