Re: [tdf-discuss] New "LibreOffice Reader" Eliminates Need for "PDF Reader"

--- On Thu, 6/23/11, Marc Paré <marc@marcpare.com> wrote:

> From: Marc Paré <marc@marcpare.com>
> Subject: [tdf-discuss] New "LibreOffice Reader" Eliminates Need for "PDF Reader"
> To: discuss@documentfoundation.org
> Date: Thursday, June 23, 2011, 2:40 PM
> OK, this is just a teaser to entice
> people into a discussion of the following proposal.
>
> There is talk on the documentation list of the formats made
> available to users of our documents (manuals, reference
> books, etc). These for now are in .odt (ODF) and .pdf
> (Adobe) and possibly .html (being discussed on the
> documentation list).
>
> The purpose of this particular thread is NOT to continue
> the documentation thread on the merits of providing
> particular formats. If you are interested in taking this up,
> it is already being discussed on the documentation list.
>
> This thread is really about proposing, to the devs, the
> possibility of creating a "LibreOffice Reader" similar to
> the "Adobe .pdf Reader". The idea is that, we are in a
> particularly advantageous position of providing an excellent
> popular office suite with a solid and well documented format
> (ODF) and, if we were to promote a "quick and dirty"
> "LibreOffice Reader", very much like the "Adobe Acrobat
> Reader", whose sole purpose is to provide the ability to
> "read" ".odt" files, there would be no need to carry .pdf
> formatted files.
>
> I would like to propose the following for discussion:
>
> The "LibreOffice Reader" would have the following
> characteristics:
>
> * small footprint
> * capable of reading ODF formatted files ONLY and .odt in
> particular
> * only capable of reading and form filling, NO editing
> capabilities (these are left to the expertise of the
> LibreOffice suite)
> * be able to interpret any of the LibreOffice
> "highlighting" effects and "weblinking" abilities
> * as much as possible code should not stray too far from
> the LibreOffice code in order to avoid a new divergent
> branch of software
> * TDF adopt "LibreOffice Reader" as its first secondary
> software project
>
> If, such a project were adopted, LibreOffice could then be
> adapted in such a way as to complement the "LibreOffice
> Reader", very much like the relationship of the Adobe
> Acrobat list of software ("Acrobat X Pro" etc.) and their
> relationship with "Acrobat Reader". The LibreOffice suite
> could have added functionality that would be compatible with
> the "LibreOffice Reader" and offer interested users, an
> opensource alternative to the .pdf format.
>
> Cheers
>
> Marc


Marc,

Idea sounds good, but there is also another competitor out there to the famous PDF :

http://djvu.sourceforge.net/

How about adding editing/viewing djvu compatibility to LibreOffice too?

I for one (except under windows) use evince/okular/xpdf or other free viewers out there as opposed 
to using Acrobat Reader :)  Having LibreOffice open word/excel/powerpoint/pdf is excellent, but 
adding djvu will also enhance it and make it even better (others don't have this capability).  But 
keep the full suite, don't worry about a reader some folks already have a odt/doc/xls viewer on the 
windows side:

http://www.officeviewers.com/

Someone mentioned this, I think that it would be not necessary to ask programmer to make a reader?  
Doing more work when other similar software exists? 
Unless if that software is (NOT FREE)/(OPEN SOURCE), there would be little to no gains if a 
LibreOffice Reader is created?   

BTW
I am a LibreOffice user not a programmer and happily use it on Windows, Linux, and FreeBSD.   

Just my $0.02.

Regards,


Antonio 

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