[tdf-announce] TDF offers preview of future product and technology developments

The Document Foundation offers a preview of future product and 
technology developments

The document at the centre of a developers' friendly environment

The Internet, November 9, 2010 - "The Document Foundation is about 
documents and the associated software is pivotal to create, exchange, 
modify, share and print documents", says Thorsten Behrens, a software 
developer and a member of TDF Steering Committee. "LibreOffice 3.3 is 
the first flavour of this long term strategy, but the journey has just 
begun, and the enormous advantages of our developer-embracing 
environment are not yet fully reflected in the upcoming software release".

LibreOffice 3.3 is based on OOo 3.3, with code optimisations and many 
new features, which are going to offer a first preview of the new 
development directions for 2011 and beyond. TDF founders foresee a 
completely different future for the office suite paradigm, which - in 
the actual format - is over 20 years old, to be based on the document 
(where the software is a layer for the creation or the presentation of 
the contents).

TDF developers are working full steam at improving the overall quality 
of OOo code, which is a good starting point, and making easy testability 
of the code and quality assurance a priority. This is an area where new 
developers and code hackers, whose number has grown to over 90 in just a 
month, are instrumental for the bulk of the activity.

In addition, each single module of LibreOffice will be undergoing an 
extensive rewrite, with Calc being the first one to be redeveloped 
around a brand new engine - code named Ixion - that will increase 
performance, allow true versatility and add long awaited database and 
VBA macro handling features. Writer is going to be improved in the area 
of layout fidelity and Impress in the area of slideshow fidelity. Most 
of the new features are either meant to maintain compatibility with the 
market leading office suite or will introduce radical innovations. They 
will also improve conversion fidelity between formats, liberate content, 
and reduce Java dependency.

"The Document Foundation is going to be at the heart of the Free 
Software universe, where users want to build a different future for 
office suites, working together with developers", says Italo Vignoli, a 
digital immigrant, and the oldest member of TDF Steering Committee. 
"Users read, write, modify and share documents, and are focused on 
contents rather than software features. After 20 years of feature 
oriented software, it is now the right time to bring back content at the 
centre of user focus".

The house of The Document Foundation is at http://documentfoundation.org.


The Document Foundation has the mission to facilitate the evolution of 
the OOo Community into a new open, independent, and meritocratic 
organization within the next few months. An independent Foundation is a 
better match to the values of contributors, users and supporters, and 
will enable a more effective, efficient, transparent, and inclusive 
Community. TDF will protect past investments by building on the 
achievements of the first decade, encourage wide participation in the 
Community, and co-ordinate activity across the Community.


Media Contacts

Florian Effenberger (Germany)
Mobile: +49 151 14424108 - E-mail: floeff@documentfoundation.org

Olivier Hallot (Brazil)
Mobile: +55 21 88228812 - E-mail: olivier.hallot@documentfoundation.org

Charles H. Schulz (France)
Mobile: +33 6 98655424 - E-mail: charles.schulz@documentfoundation.org

Italo Vignoli (Italy)
Mobile: +39 348 5653829 - E-mail: italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org

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