[xrange]

>...it's so full of little bugs and crashes it's not really usable in my mind. I'm using the version from Debian unstable.

Ever try it on another platform or build? I've been learning FreeCAD for the past few months, and while have certainly come across "quirks" (like certain boolean operations not working quite right, the polar array feature in the Draft workbench working with everything I throw at it, but the polar array feature on the Part Design workbench choking on somethings, etc.). I've never had it crash. I've been using the "stock" v0.16 x64 build on Windows 10. It could be that since I'm just a CAD newbie, that I'm not exercising it hard.