FAQ

Questions Frequently Asked about Oleo


Questions
---------

1. What is Oleo?
2. How do I build and install it?
3. Who are the perpetrators of this application?
4. But I have heard that Oleo is defunct?
5. How should I go about building Oleo?
6. What changes are in store for Oleo?
7. What about the Year 2000 thing?
8. Does it support languages other than English?
9. Does Oleo work on character terminals?
10. Does Oleo work under X?
11. Does Oleo support <language X>?
12. What are the licensing terms for Oleo?
13. I can't compile Oleo 1.6 on a <computer> running <operating system>
14. I can compile with the Motif interface, but the binary dumps
    core when I try to run it under X.  What's the deal?
15. Menu item <some item> in the Motif interface doesn't do anything!
16. I can't select cells in the Motif interface!
17. How can I get help on what functions are used for what?
18. It's obvious that this application needs my help.  How can I
    participate?
19. What other spreadsheets are out there?
20. I can compile with the Motif interface, but when I run Oleo
    with the -x or --nw option to use the character terminal
    interface, a lot of keys don't work.  What's the deal?
21. What are these spreadsheet formats ?
22. Oleo seems to be able to read DBF files, yet it complains. Why ?
23. How can I build Oleo with Xbase support ?
24. I have plotutils installed yet Oleo doesn't use it. Why ?

Answers
-------

1. What is Oleo?

	It's a spreadsheet program.

2. How do I build and install it?

	See the file README and the file INSTALL.

3. Who are the perpetrators of this application?

	See the file AUTHORS and the file THANKS.

4. But I have heard that Oleo is defunct?

	It's not defunct, but there was a period of several years during
	which the code sat in limbo on the Internet with no maintainer or
	team to look after it.  Oleo is now back in the game.  For the full
	story, see the file AUTHORS.

5. What changes are in store for Oleo?

	See the file TODO.

6. What about the Year 2000 thing?

	As GNU Oleo is free software, there is no guarantee that this
	package is year-2000 safe.  There are several places where 2-digit
	dates may indeed be used internally.  However, being based on the
	GNU Libc, it is likely that it will be year 2000 safe once a quick
	pass is made to ensure that it uses standard date functions.  Most
	unix systems use a 32-bit date field, which give us until the year
	2030 or so to find a better solution.  The likelihood is that all
	systems will be _at least_ 64 bit by then, alleviating all the
	pressure.

	This still poses a problem, in that you should NOT expect this
	version of Oleo to be able to calculate, say, 50 or 100 year
	investment bonds.  This is a serious limitation that will need to be
	dealt with.

7. Does it support languages other than English?

	Yes.  See the file ABOUT-NLS.

8. Does Oleo work on character terminals?

	Yes.

9. Does Oleo work under X?

	Yes.  Over the long term, the preferred X interface is going to be
	the LessTif/Motif interface initiated by Danny Backx.  It is still
	incomplete, so for real work either run Oleo with the character
	terminal interface in an Xterm, or see item 17, below.

11. What are the licensing terms for Oleo?

	See the file COPYING.

12. I can't compile Oleo 1.6 on a <computer> running <operating system>.

	See item 17, below.  Even if you conclude early that Oleo will not
	suit your needs, the developers would still like to have any
	information you can provideb about failures or problems you
	encounter.  It's the only quickest way to put things right.  Please
	inform the list.

13. I can compile with the Motif interface, but the binary dumps
    core when I try to run it under X.  What's the deal?

	If the XIM (X Input Method) protocol is present in the environment
	within which Oleo is run, it will dump core.  The kinput2 agent for
	Japanese input relies on XIM, and if this agent is running in the
	background, Oleo will be affected.  At present the only way to bring
	up Oleo in such an environment is to kill kinput2 or any other XIM
	agent.  This limitation will go away in time, as i18n international
	support in the Motif libraries improves, but for the present we just
	have to live with it.

14. Menu item <some item> in the Motif interface doesn't do anything!

	The Motif interface is still incomplete.  For real work you will
	probably want to use the character interface.  There is no need to
	recompile.  If running from within X, just run the same binary with
	the option --nw or -x.  At a character terminal, Oleo should present
	a character interface even if invoked without these options.

15. I can't select cells in the Motif interface!

	See item 14, above.

16. How can I get help on what functions are used for what?

	We are working on a robust system of online help for both the Motif
	and character terminal interfaces, but at present the only really
	useful source of information about the function and expression
	interfaces is contained in the file doc/scripts/OleoManual.dvi. 
	This document is 62 pages in length.  Since Oleo's internals are not
	yet stable, the content of this manual will change a little with
	each release of the code.  You may therefore prefer to read this
	document online with a viewer such as Xdvi.

17. It's obvious that this application needs my help.  How can I
    participate?

	Send mail to bug-oleo-request@gnu.org, including the word "subscribe"
	in the subject header, and your email address in the body
	of the message.  Bug reports and requests for help should be sent
	to the same address.

18. What other free spreadsheets are out there?

	There are several.  A good site to check for information on
	spreadsheet issues generally is <Web address>.

20. I can compile with the Motif interface, but when I run Oleo
    with the -x or --nw option to use the character terminal
    interface, a lot of keys don't work.  What's the deal?

	At present, an Oleo compiled with Motif support lacks the
	key bindings needed for the character interface to work
	correctly.  For now, the only way to handle this is to
	keep two separately compiled copies of Oleo on your system,
	one with Motif and one without.

21. What are these spreadsheet formats ?

	Oleo currently understands the following formats :
	- .oleo
	- .sylk
	- .sc
	- .csv	(comma separated values)
	- .list	(tab separated values)
	- .panic
	- .dbf   (Dbase format)

	It currently doesn't understand Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 file
	formats.

	Many spreadsheet formats, including many of the above, are
	documented at www.wotsit.org .

22. Oleo seems to be able to read DBF files, yet it complains. Why ?

	Oleo has (currently simplistic) support for reading DBF files
	through the Xbase library.

	The Xbase library can be obtained from
		http://www.startech.keller.tx.us/xbase.html

	The problem is that this is C++ software, and we have chosen
	not to force the use of C++ upon people who want to build
	Oleo. The automake/autoconf build systems don't allow us to
	build configuration files that will work whether a C++
	compiler is present or not (if we include C++ source files).

	So the only option we have left is not to support Xbase by
	default.

	See the next question.

23. How can I build Oleo with Xbase support ?

	You'll need a C++ compiler. The Oleo sources contain one C++
	source file (all the rest is plain C). We need this because
	the Xbase library is C++.

	We did some configuration fine-tuning, and eventually got to
	a point where we have an Oleo source which builds with or
	without a C++ compiler.

	So if you have a C++ compiler and you've installed Xbase on
	your system, then the configure program should find the C++
	compiler. When that happens it'll look for Xbase as well.
	If that goes well, it'll compile the relevant source.

	Then you should have a version of Oleo that can deal with .DBF files.

	If anything fails then Oleo will complain when you try to load
	an Xbase (*.dbf) file.

24. I have plotutils installed yet Oleo doesn't use it. Why ?

	GNU Plotutils can be used with Motif(LessTif), or with the Athena
	widgets. If your system has a version of Plotutils that has been
	built with the Athena widgets, it is very likely that the Oleo
	configuration scripts will fail to pick it up.

	The only remedy is to build a version of Plotutils for use with
	Motif. This will work correctly with Oleo.