Re: Final Itteration.

From: Martin Sevior (msevior@mccubbin.ph.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Wed May 08 2002 - 02:45:55 EDT

  • Next message: Andrew Dunbar: "Re: Final Itteration."

    On Wed, 8 May 2002, [iso-8859-1] Andrew Dunbar wrote:

    > --- Martin Sevior
    > <msevior@mccubbin.ph.unimelb.edu.au> wrote: >
    > >
    > >
    > > On Wed, 8 May 2002, [iso-8859-1] Andrew Dunbar
    > > wrote:
    > > >
    > > > We aim at robust inter-operability with existing
    > > > products, such as Microsoft Word®, Corel's
    > > > WordPerfect®, and others. Our goal is to
    > > incorporate
    > > > the most useful features of these competing
    > > > applications without the fluff, bloat, or slowness
    > > > that accompany them. The result is a lean and mean
    > > > word processor, the download size being less than
    > > 4
    > > > megabytes.
    > > >
    > > >
    > > > -- I don't like the word 'slowness'. Maybe
    > > > 'inefficiency'. 'fluff' also sounds a bit
    > > > derogatory and we're probably not fluff-free in
    > > the
    > > > eyes of many users either. And some fluff is
    > > > good fluff (:
    > > >
    > >
    > > I left in fluff and changed slowness to
    > > inefficiency.
    > >
    > > <snip>
    > >
    > > >
    > > > The worldwide team of AbiWord volunteers is
    > > already
    > > > hard at work developing the next release of
    > > AbiWord,
    > > > which will include advanced features such as
    > > tables
    > > > and support for more complex languages. Users,
    > > > writers, translators, testers, and developers are
    > > all
    > > > encouraged to try out AbiWord and see what they'd
    > > like
    > > > to add next.
    > > >
    > > > -- This is the perfect place to advertise for
    > > > international developers. I can't emphasize
    > > enough
    > > > how badly we are going to need especially Indian
    > > > and/or Southeast Asian developers. The same goes
    > > for
    > > > translators.
    > >
    > > I put a request for Korean, Arabic and South Asian
    > > developers and
    > > Translators.
    >
    > I'm a bit concerned about "Arabic developers". The
    > "Arabic script" is also used by tens of millions of
    > non Arabs, especially in Iran and Pakistan and
    > their versions of the script actually require a bit
    > more expertise than plain old Arabic so their input
    > would be more valuable.
    > That said, I'm not quite sure what an accurate and
    > politically correct wording would be without sounding
    > overly jargonistic - any ideas?

    That class would be covered in "South Asian" right?

    >
    > > > -- I would also personally make the fact that
    > > tables
    > > > aren't here yet more prominent. Closer to the
    > > top.
    > > > We should defuse this expectation before people
    > > get
    > > > their hopes up. We probably should say something
    > > to
    > > > the effect of 'it does almost everything except
    > > > tables,
    > > > which is the #1 priority for the next version'.
    > > > But we also don't want to make it sound like that
    > > > version is a couple of weeks away...
    > > >
    > >
    > > I decided to leave it as is. Introducing that
    > > earlier negates some of the
    > > positive vibes we engenger.
    >
    > Well that's what we do now. We give them positive
    > vibes - and then we negate them. I'd prefer not to
    > make them expect too much early on is all.
    > Since many people feel the lack of tables make AbiWord
    > unusable or a toy I think we should do this. for
    > almost any other missing feature I'd do just as you've
    > done now.
    >

    Sorry, unless you can some up with a specific wording that I like, I'll go
    with the current phrasing.

    Martin



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Wed May 08 2002 - 02:49:47 EDT