Gnumeric 1.4 is Here!

[mortenw gnome org (Morten Welinder)]

http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/announcements/1.4/gnumeric-1.4.shtml
/The Internet, December 19, 2004 -- for immediate release./


  Gnumeric 1.4 is Here!
  (Free, Fast, Accurate: Pick any 3!)

The Gnumeric Team is pleased to announce the availability of Gnumeric
version 1.4.1. This is the first publicly announced version of the new
stable 1.4 series, part of GNOME Office 1.2.

We have worked hard at producing the best available spreadsheet for a
wide range of applications from simple numerical scratch pad, financial
analytical tool, to scientific number cruncher.

More than a year has passed since the release of the 1.2 series and many
things have been improved:

Improved Microsoft Excel^tm compatibility:
    Charts and images can now be exported, and objects (even Forms) are
    handled more smoothly. There is full support for all types of
    'array' formulas and operators.
Better Charting:
    Several new types of charts have been added, and many features, such
    as error bars, and non-linear plots, have been added.
Improved accuracy:
    While Gnumeric 1.2 was already the best available source for
    accuracy in statistical calculations, Gnumeric 1.4 is even better.
    We are cooperating with The R Project <http://www.r-project.org/> to
    make this happen.
Win32 and small device portability:
    It is now possible to run Gnumeric on Microsoft Windows. The port is
    not quite production ready, but is maturing rapidly. With a small
    loss of functionality Gnumeric can also build with only the Gtk+
    library stack dropping the remainder of the GNOME library set for
    small devices.
Network transparency:
    Gnumeric can now access spreadsheets stored on web servers directly.
Even more sheet functions:
    We have added even more sheet functions to Gnumeric, for example a
    set of functions for telecommunications engineering. Gnumeric now
    has 470 sheet functions
    <http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/functions.shtml> including
    all sheet functions in the North American version of Microsoft
    Excel^tm XP, and more than 100 beyond that.
Rich and Rotated Text:
    Multiple formats and fonts within strings, and in 1.4.2 rotated text
    is supported too. (This requires recent versions of Pango and the
    Gnome Print libraries.)
Improved printing:
    Printing has been improved and is now using the same layout
    mechanism as on-screen. This should greatly reduce printing
    surprises. (This requires recent versions of Pango and the Gnome
    Print libraries.)
GTK+ 2.4/2.6 integration:
    Gnumeric takes advantage of, for example, GTK+'s highly improved
    file selector.


    Getting Gnumeric

Gnumeric 1.4 is available
<http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/downloads.shtml> from the
redesigned and updated Gnumeric home Page
<http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/>.


    Looking Ahead

The 1.4 series is not the end of the line. You can see some of our
future plans at our to-do list
<http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/to-do.shtml> and our list of
frequently asked questions
<http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/faq.shtml> contains the answers
to common questions about features.


    Thanks

The 1.4 release is dedicated to the memory of lost colleagues, *Chema
(Grandma) Celorio* who helped make Gnumeric as stable as it is, and *Mel
Seder* who kept us smiling. They'll both be missed.

        Team Gnumeric    
        ------------------------------------------------------
        Jody                    Maintainer
        Morten W                All round powerhouse
        Andreas Guelzow         Stats and so much more
        Adrian Custer           Docs
        Emmanuel Pacaud         Widgets and charts
        Hal Ashburner           More option pricers
        Ivan Wong               win32 builds
        J.H.M. Dassen (Ray)     1.2 series maintainer
        Jean Brefort            Charts
        Jon K Hellan            Widget wizard
        Joseph Pingenot         New website
        Stepan Kasal            OLE2 export audit and
                                non-gtk development

Gnumeric relies heavily on other projects: the Perl Compatible Regular
Expression <http://pcre.org/> engine, The R Project
<http://www.r-project.org/>, the GNU Linear Programming Kit
<http://www.gnu.org/software/glpk/glpk.html>, the lp_solve mixed integer
programming solver <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lp_solve>, and of
course GNOME <http://www.gnome.org/>.

Thanks are owed to the many people who have contributed patches during
Gnumeric's development. Especially for the translators who wade through
the tremendous volume of text in Gnumeric and deserve a lot of credit
for dealing with the abstruse terms and jargon:

Abel Cheung, Adam Weinberger, Alessio Frusciante, Alexander Shopov,
Alastair McKinstry, Andras Timar, Andrew Makhorin, Arief Mulya Utama,
Artur Flinta, Asbullah Bin Pit, Carlos Perello Marin, Changwoo Ryu,
Christian Neumair, Christophe Fergeau, Christophe Merlet, Christopher
James Lahey, Daniel Yacob, Danilo Segan , David Lodge, David
Mosberger-Tang, Dom Lachowicz, Duarte Loreto, Etsushi Kato, Evandro
Fernandes Giovanini, Fatih Demir, Francisco Javier F. Serrador, Frederic
Parrenin Funda Wang, German Poo-Caaman~o, Gil "Dolfin" Osher, Guntupalli
Karunakar, Gustavo Maciel Dias Vieira, Gustavo Noronha Silva, Jan Moren,
John Gill Jordi Mallach, Jukka Pekka, Kjartan Maraas, Kostas Papadimas,
Metin Amiroff, Miloslav Trmac, Nick Lamb, Nikos Charonitakis, Pablo
Gonzalo del Campo, Pablo Saratxaga, Priit Laes, Raphael Higino, Robert
Sedak, Rodrigo Moya, Stanislav Visnovsky, Stepan Kasal, Takeshi AIHANA,
Tomasz Koczko, Tommi Vainikainen, Valek Filippov, Vincent van Adrighem,
Wang Jian, Yukihiro Nakai