[geeks] RHCE advice

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Tue, 25 Jul 2006 @ 23:25 -0400, Nadine said:

> On 7/25/06, Michael Parson <mparson at bl.org> wrote:
> > > I would imagine that it could be done easily enough with AppleScript if
> > > you are using a Mac.  I don't know about using OpenOffice in that manner
> > > on other platforms.
> >
> > Well, OpenOffice isn't a native app for MacOS, but there is NeoOffice,
> > which is still in alpha test versions, but it might be Applescript-able.
> 
> I have to say, even in alpha form, I like NeoOffice better than OO on
> Linux.  That may just be an artifact of the Aqua libraries being
> "speedier" than the bloat that passes for a GUI on Linux, but I can't
> be sure.

NeoOffice is faster on the Mac because it uses the native toolkit.  This
reduces resource usage, gives you OpenGL acceleration, and looks a lot
better.

The portable OpenOffice code can't be that way, at least not as easily.
2.x did make a lot of improvements in speed and looks, but it is a
portable GUI system designed to run on Windows and UNIX, so it isn't
optimal for either.

I would imagine that if you rewrote OpenOffice to specifically target
KDE and also OpenGL acceleration features, and it would probably be
faster on Linux too, as well as being prettier and using less resources.

I wonder how hard NeoOffice will be to maintain as OpenOffice changes?

If it proves manageable, then maybe we'll see other system specific
ports pop up.

> There are a few interface things that OO does that I don't like,
> though.  I've been having trouble grokking how it handles tables and
> hanging indents.  I tried RTFM'ing but the docs are just stupid
> enumerations of what the menus->commands do. :-/

To me *ALL* word processors are crazy like that.

I find OpenOffice slightly more sensible than Microsoft Office, mostly
because the latter tries to help me too much.

> It's just too bad that Adobe hasn't seen fit to port Framemaker to OS
> X.  Kinda stupid, given there's a Sparc X11 version--I doubt Mac geeks
> would balk at running it under X11.

Yeah, it's really sad to see that one dying.

NASA still uses it, as do a lot of shops that need a good structured
document editor and/or use a GUI program for large documents.

At NASA, we had software that generated Maker documentation, because
there are toolkits for doing that.

It would be very hard or impossible to do this with OpenOffice or
Microsoft office, and neither does really well with very large
documents.

-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["Trouble rather the tiger in his lair than
the sage amongst his books For to you kingdoms and their armies are mighty
and enduring,  but to him they are but toys of the moment to be overturned
by the flicking of a finger." - anonymous     ]