Re: [tdf-discuss] Re: Name Change for LibreOffice Applications

Maybe this discussion is a bit premature, but nevertheless...

Þann þri  7.des 2010 19:32, skrifaði Marc Paré:
> Le 2010-12-07 13:12, Christophe Strobbe a écrit :
> > Hi,
> >
> > At 18:50 7/12/2010, Rainer Bielefeld wrote:
> > > Rainer Bielefeld schrieb:
> > > > [...] but switch from Sxxx.exe to Lxxx.exe (LWRITER.EXEm ...)
> > >
> > > But if that might cause any trouble (for example Extensions
> > > referencing to current names of .exe files) I would leave all as it is.
> >
> > I agree. I am involved in the development of three OpenOffice.org
> > extensions: odt2daisy, odt2braille and a third one that will be released
> > in early 2011. odt2daisy and odt2braille (both available on SourceForge)
> > currently work with LibreOffice and I would like to preserve
> > compatibility.
> >
> > With regard to the original question: are there any surveys or data that
> > confirm that the names for Writer, Calc and Impress need to be improved?
> > (I wouldn't be surprised if this were the case for Impress; I don't see
> > a problem for the others.)
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Christophe
>
> I don't believe that any of this has been discussed as the SC and most
> communities see the move from OpenOffice to LibreOffice as a natural
> outcome of moving to a "foundation" organisation. We had originally
> wanted to have the use of the "OpenOffice" name.
>
> I can tell you from personal experience, over many years, with using
> OpenOffice in the classroom and with students at home, "Writer" and
> "Calc" are easily recognisable; "Impress" is not.
>
> We should perhaps consider that Oracle has decided to go on with
> OpenOffice and is using the "Writer", "Calc" and "Impress" names. Will
> people associate these names more with OpenOffice? Do these names
> conjure up the image of OOo? I would suspect yes. I can already imagine
> that people will be asking me if I am talking about OpenOffice or
> LibreOffice (when I use the module names)?
>
> We could also see this as somewhat of a standoff, do we own the moral or
> even legal rights to use the "Writer", "Calc" and "Impress" names or
> does OpenOffice?
>
> If we are to change, the names should be very descriptive and concise.
> And, as Christophe points out, the compatibility of extensions will have
> to be considered.
>
> Maybe now is not the time to change names? We could better plan for a
> later release if we do?
>
> Just my thoughts.
>
> Marc

Why having proper names for for those different
"phases/actions" in an office suite ?

I've been instructing non-tech people during adoption of
FOSS in several institutions and one private company; I'd
say there's a minority who distinguish between an OS and an
office suite (does not matter whether it's Win/MSO or
*buntu/OOo). Seriously.

Distinguishing between various apps in an office suite is
sometimes quite approximate, and the usage of the apps can
be surprising at times.
Young students tend to do all their documents in
PowerPoint/Impress and are astonished about their teacher
fuzzing about this Word/Writer thing.
I've seen lengthy documents and CV's done in Excel/Calc; not
surprisingly by accounting/finance people ;-)

In my OOo/LibO translation work I've sometimes been thinking
about replacing the proper names Writer/Calc/Impress etc.
for the more generic text/spreadsheet/presentation. To be
feasible there are some other modifications necessary.

But I was thinking that if/when changing names of individual
components in LibreOffice, maybe it should be according to a
trend in development of the suite, where the whole concept
of a document would be addressed.
Look at DTP-suites; various sources of input onto a document
layout (text frames, image frames, render frames, etc), most
of them either editable inline or with external apps. An
office document is mostly constructed similarly (frames) -
when editing inline one does not have to know which app is
evoked (the menus/toolbars change).

Losing the names would not be that dramatic, one only enters
spreadsheet mode/phase when editing að table/spreadsheet in
the document, similar for word processing in text frames.
The important thing would be to choose rendering output, and
that would be aided by having various previews
(page/print/presentation screen/web etc).

Just to say it; personally I'd hate such kind of
fuzzy-one-for-all-thinking for you-UI, I prefer apps with
well defined roles. But I can state that not everybody does
- and that there's some evolution going on how people
percieve (office) documents.

Just thoughts,

Sveinn í Felli


-- 
Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to discuss+help@documentfoundation.org
Archive: http://www.documentfoundation.org/lists/discuss/
*** All posts to this list are publicly archived for eternity ***