From: Hubert Figuiere (hfiguiere@teaser.fr)
Date: Sat Mar 02 2002 - 21:46:38 GMT
On Sat, 2002-03-02 at 19:36, Sanity in Anarchy wrote:
> >Anyhow, I digress. My off the cuff feedback on Abiword is, well to be
> >frank, hey guys don't go overimproving it huh! So far it is a very legible
> >simple user experience, loads quickly, downloads quickly etc.
>
> Loading and downloading quickly don't necessarily have anything to do with
> features implemented. An important concept, if too many features are to be
> added, would be to have most of them added as plugins, and to have any and all
> features only loaded when they're used.
You can make a software that does nothing loda more slowly than a full
fledged application. It depends of the way things are done. Yes, we'll
try to concentrate one usefull things and let futilities in the land of
marketroids.
> >I like very much that the interface is MS Word compatible, almost
> >uncanily so. (Im a little surprised MS doesn't have patents on some of
> >that stuff, eg red squiggle spelling. )
>
> How do you patent stuff like that? I'm not sure if it's possible. I know you
> can copyright the code, but look at the striking similarity between the first
> Windows and a Macintosh from the same era! I've even heard the code was
> stolen, though I can't back that up.
According to certain jurisdictions, almost everything can be patented.
Hopefully, prior art helps defeating that kind of action. So don't be
worried about that. BTW we are not aware of any patent infringement.
[...]
> Remember that AbiWord uses PNG format for its pictures, and Word
> can't read PNG format.
WRONG. Since Word 97, PNG is fully supported.
[...]
> Mostly, things like managing those spaces are more trouble than it's worth.
> I'd appreciate it if word processors got dumber! It's supposed to be a
> typewriter, not an editor! Example: In MS Word, by default, typing "Dear
> ____," and hitting enter brings up an animated "Office Asistant" to help you
> with writing a letter! We know how to write letters!
I must agree with that. That kind of feature will be useful only when
the computer will become smarter than the human. That will require it to
have some ESP or other telepathic capabalities. Scary, isn't it ?
Hub
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