Bug 154568 - Add a section "experimental features" in the Release Notes
Summary: Add a section "experimental features" in the Release Notes
Status: RESOLVED NOTOURBUG
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Documentation (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
3.3.0 release
Hardware: All All
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords: needsDevAdvice
Depends on:
Blocks: Options-Dialog-Expert
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Reported: 2023-04-02 15:15 UTC by Jean-Baptiste Faure
Modified: 2024-09-06 06:26 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

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Crash report or crash signature:


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Description Jean-Baptiste Faure 2023-04-02 15:15:43 UTC
Description:
When enabling experimental features, you do not know which features you have enabled. To fix that, the release notes of each version could have a section dedicated to list all experimental features available in this version. LibreOffice UI should provide a link to this webpage.

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Menu Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Advanced
2. Check "Enable experimental features (may be unstable)"
3.

Actual Results:
You do not know what you enabled.

Expected Results:
You are aware of each experimental feature you enabled.


Reproducible: Always


User Profile Reset: No

Additional Info:
The information is available in the release notes of the used LO version.
A link to this webpage is available in the label of the checkbox.
Comment 1 Stéphane Guillou (stragu) 2023-04-04 06:53:35 UTC
I agree this is a needed addition.

The documentation for the Advanced panel does not attempt to list experimental features: https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/shared/optionen/java.html

The banner used for (documented) experimental features is this one: https://help.libreoffice.org/latest/en-US/text/shared/optionen/experimental.html

By searching which pages embed this banner, one can find some of the experimental features: https://opengrok.libreoffice.org/search?project=help&full=+%27embed+href%3D%22text%2Fshared%2Foptionen%2Fexperimental.xhp%23experimental%22%27&defs=&refs=&path=&hist=&type=&xrd=&nn=1&si=full&si=full

The release notes is the perfect place to list such experimental features, as they will very much depend on the release, and it would be good to attract attention to them for contributors willing to test them.

Some release notes pages did have that section, see for example: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/4.2#Experimental_Features

And in the past, some new features were flagged as experimental in the release notes, see for example: https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/ReleaseNotes/7.0#Accessibility_improvements

In my opinion, we should follow these guidelines:
- In the body, list features that are not experimental anymore, but available by default
- Have a separate section that lists _all_ experimental features for this version, to keep track of them.

Thoughts?
Comment 2 fpy 2024-08-23 07:41:46 UTC
The release note is not in the scope of 'Documentation', is it ?
Comment 3 Buovjaga 2024-08-28 06:26:24 UTC
(In reply to fpy from comment #2)
> The release note is not in the scope of 'Documentation', is it ?

It's debatable, but also: these are wiki pages, so anyone can add the information. I wouldn't maybe create a bug report for it, but just do it. The nature of this task is such that I find it unlikely that someone else is just going to pick this up.

Jean-Baptiste: you say "LibreOffice UI should provide a link to this webpage". What is your exact proposal regarding this?
Comment 4 Jean-Baptiste Faure 2024-09-01 16:04:25 UTC
(In reply to Buovjaga from comment #3)
> 
> Jean-Baptiste: you say "LibreOffice UI should provide a link to this
> webpage". What is your exact proposal regarding this?

This link could be below the checkbox in Tools > Options > LibreOffice > Advanced. Something like "You can check the list of experimental functions for this version of LibreOffice by clicking on this link : ...".

Best regards. JBF
Comment 5 Buovjaga 2024-09-01 16:59:09 UTC
(In reply to Jean-Baptiste Faure from comment #4)
> (In reply to Buovjaga from comment #3)
> > 
> > Jean-Baptiste: you say "LibreOffice UI should provide a link to this
> > webpage". What is your exact proposal regarding this?
> 
> This link could be below the checkbox in Tools > Options > LibreOffice >
> Advanced. Something like "You can check the list of experimental functions
> for this version of LibreOffice by clicking on this link : ...".

Thanks for elaborating. As the options dialog is always kind of a battleground of real estate, let's alert the design team.
Comment 6 Heiko Tietze 2024-09-02 09:45:25 UTC
(In reply to Jean-Baptiste Faure from comment #4)
> This link could be below the checkbox in Tools > Options > LibreOffice >
> Advanced. Something like "You can check the list of experimental functions
> for this version of LibreOffice by clicking on this link : ...".
A search for IsExperimental returns 55 results (not all true) and for ExperimentalMode 44. I doubt that we can link it to a certain version, and probably should not advertise the use. But some documentation on the wiki sounds good anyway.

(In reply to Buovjaga from comment #3)
> I wouldn't maybe create a bug report for it, but just do it.
Worth to discuss at the ESC. But shouldn't this rather be a note on the single line?
Comment 7 Buovjaga 2024-09-02 11:48:47 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #6)
> (In reply to Buovjaga from comment #3)
> > I wouldn't maybe create a bug report for it, but just do it.
> Worth to discuss at the ESC. But shouldn't this rather be a note on the
> single line?

My comment was about adding documentation to the wiki.
Comment 8 Heiko Tietze 2024-09-05 14:18:13 UTC
We discussed the idea at ESC. It is a welcome proposal and I added a section to the next release notes. Someone should create a dedicated wiki page that lists all commands tagged IsExperimental and the conditional code using ExperimentalMode::get(), ideally with a note from what release on it was added. Hossein, something for you?

Resolving the ticket as NOB since it's not solvable per patch.
Comment 9 V Stuart Foote 2024-09-05 14:54:52 UTC
(In reply to Heiko Tietze from comment #8)

> Resolving the ticket as NOB since it's not solvable per patch.

Shouldn't that be a Redmine issue, with a Moved resolution?
Comment 10 Heiko Tietze 2024-09-06 06:26:51 UTC
If we need a Redmine ticket to create a wiki page it would be the correct solution, yes.