Bug#1031422: gnumeric: Included documentation of python use in gnumeric is incorrect

[Alex King]

Package: gnumeric
Version: 1.12.48-1+b2
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

I was looking to do some python scripting in gnumeric.

I checked the documentation (in the gnumeric-doc package in bullseye) for
how to do it. In "The Python Console" section of the documentation, it
mentions editing a file in ~/.gnumeric/$version/plugins/. This doesn't
exist. It appears this type of configuration is now in dconf instead.

Under the "Installing and Building Gnumeric for Python" section, it is
mentioned to "apt-get install gnumeric gnumeric-python python".
gnumeric-python does not exist in the archive, and likely the bulk of these
instructons are obselete since the transition to python3.

It would be nice to have instructons that tell me how to use python3 with
gnumeric. If that isn't available (a google search didn't turn up much
promising), at least the obsolete stuff should be removed from the
documentation.

I downloaded the testing version of gnumeric (gnumeric_1.12.55-1), and
looked in /usr/share/doc/gnumeric/README.Debian (it has not changed since
stable). It includes the obsolete text:

Q: Where is the <foo> plugin?
A: Plugins that require additional libraries or programs are packaged
separately (e.g. "gnumeric-python"). Do "apt-cache search gnumeric" to
find them.

As already mentioned, the gnumeric-python package no longer exists, and the
only relevant plugins package seems to be gnumeric-plugins-extra.

It would be better if the obsolete documentation was removed.

It would be ideal if it were possible to use python3 with gnumeric, and if
instructions for doing so were included in a README.

Thanks,
Alex

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 11.5
APT prefers stable-updates
APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 5.10.0-21-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU threads)
Locale: LANG=en_NZ.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_NZ.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_NZ:en
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages gnumeric depends on:
ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.77
ii gnumeric-common 1.12.48-1
ii gsfonts 1:8.11+urwcyr1.0.7~pre44-4.5
ii libatk1.0-0 2.36.0-2
ii libc6 2.31-13+deb11u5
ii libcairo2 1.16.0-5
ii libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 2.40.2-2
ii libglib2.0-0 2.66.8-1
ii libgoffice-0.10-10 0.10.48-1
ii libgsf-1-114 1.14.47-1
ii libgtk-3-0 3.24.24-4+deb11u2
ii libpango-1.0-0 1.46.2-3
ii libpangocairo-1.0-0 1.46.2-3
ii libxml2 2.9.10+dfsg-6.7+deb11u3
ii procps 2:3.3.17-5
ii pxlib1 0.6.8-1+b1
ii zlib1g 1:1.2.11.dfsg-2+deb11u2

Versions of packages gnumeric recommends:
ii evince 3.38.2-1
ii gnumeric-doc 1.12.48-1
ii lp-solve 5.5.2.5-2

Versions of packages gnumeric suggests:
ii fonts-liberation 1:1.07.4-11
ii gnumeric-plugins-extra 1.12.48-1+b2
pn libgsf-1-dev <none>

-- debconf information:
gnumeric/existing-process-title:
gnumeric/existing-process: false