AbiWord feedback

Lan Barnes (lanbarnes@earthlink.net)
Sun, 25 Jul 1999 17:50:33 -0700


First, I'm very impressed and very grateful that this project is
being done, and so well.

Now, my $.02 in hopes it will serve as market research. Most of
my remarks should be understood in the context of my trying to
sever the dependence on M$ for me and my clients.

1. The close compatibility of the user interface w/ M$ Word is
_exactly_ what is needed. Word is not that bad a product, and
it's good to minimize retraining.

2. Please do not go down the StarOffice route of putting six or
seven apps in one program. Small is beautiful. I only load SO
when I desperate because it's so big and all-consuming.

3. Using XML as the file output is a stroke of brilliance.

4. The ability to translate M$ Word format(s) to/from AbiWord is
(as I know you've recognized) critical to undermining the
stranglehold on the desktop. If I were capable of it, I'd pitch
in on this aspect. As you do solve it (and I speak from ignorance
because I haven't looked at your source), I would suggest keeping
it extremely modular, even to the point of having it as a
separate exec (like ispell?). That code will have legs -- and it
had better. M$ will keep Word a moving target.

Again, my thanks for this project.

-- 
Lan Barnes                 lanbarnes@earthlink.net
Icon Consulting, Inc       619-273-6677

Bill Gates would not be alive today if the Unibomber had tried to install Windows 95. - Anonymous



This archive was generated by hypermail 1.03b2.