[Gimp-user] Question about text-to-path

[jeff cjsa com (Jeffery Small)]

I'm using GIMP 2.8 on Xubuntu 12.10.  I have been going through the new
manual trying out various features, was experimenting with text-to-path,
and ran into a problem I can't seem to solve.

In my test, I do the following:

    * Create a circular selection with the ellipse tool
    * Go to the Paths dialog and select selection to path
    * Select the text tool and enter the 26 characters a-z at 20 pt
    * I right-click in the text box and select "Text along Path"

Only 18 characters, [a-r], are displayed.  This seems to cover an arc of
about 45-degrees.

I undo, increase the text point size to 40 pt and reapply to the path and
I get 19 characters, [a-s], covering an arc of about 95-degrees.

I have tried this over and over and always get similar results.  Regardless
of how much text I enter, I only get a small initial portion displayed
along the path.

If I start over and create a long linear path with the path tool and then
apply text to it, I still get the same truncated strings.

Note:  I do not have this problem with GIMP 2.6.11 on my Solaris system.

Questions:

1: Any idea how I can get my entire text string to convert to the path, or
   is this a bug?

2: Any good reason why the "Path from Text" and "Text along Path" buttons
   were removed from the Text Tool Options menu?

Thanks.
--
Jeffery Small