Re: [tdf-discuss] ignore m$ legacy?

On 07/20/2011 05:02 PM, e-letter wrote:
> On the users mailing list, a significant proportion of a random view
> of questions seems to be with relation to using LO is some way with m$
> document formats.
>
> What should be the priority of LO development: bug-free and excellent
> behaviour in native odt format, or minimising "interoperability
> issues" with m$?
>
> No doubt it is convenient in a gnu/linux environment to be able to
> receive a document attached in an e-mail message and at least be able
> to view that document. However, is it really worthwhile, or fair to
> LO, to be able edit such documents so perfectly that the recipient
> doesn't realise LO was used instead of m$?
>
> In a business scenario, a customer who sends a document is m$ format
> (for simpliciticy assume for subsequent editing) would most likely
> expect the recipient to have the money to buy m$ software and edit the
> document accordingly. It is difficult to understand why a business
> would waste time trying to use LO; if a customer uses m$, the supplier
> might as well do so also and consider the m$ price as a cost of
> conducting business. Is the cost of m$ such a massive proportion of a
> business cost structure that transferring to LO is the difference
> between the business remaining profitable or not?
>
> In a non-business scenario, for example academia, one could imagine a
> scenario where the teacher sends a document in m$ format, the student
> uses LO because it is free. The student could explain his/her
> circumstances to the teacher who may be flexible in either accepting
> slight formatting differences, or even deciding to use LO also (the
> ideal result).
>
> To conclude, it does not seem a good long-term idea to be constantly
> seeking high (if not perfect) compatibility with the constantly moving
> targets that are m$ formats. The priority for LO should be to ignore
> self-inflicted problems such as "I saved a document is m$ format x and
> something has disappeared" and focus upon "when using writer to create
> a new odt file, a table alignment error occurs".

I might also conclude that there is NO reason to support any other file 
format either. I mean, really, why should I support a non-ODF format? 
PDF generation? Remove it! Any other office file format? Remove it! Why 
single out file formats associated with MS?

I am more comfortable in OOo than I am in MSO, so, I have created many 
MSO deliverables in OOo and LO. The only time that I make an exception 
is when I believe that I am not able to seamlessly move between formats 
because of incompatibilities. So, if I intend to create a large document 
with multiple images, links, and fields, I begin and end with MSO.

While writing a book on OOo, I worked in OOo on a Linux platform and 
some of the editors worked in MSO. We moved documents back and forth 
seamlessly with no problems. They had no intention of using OOo or LO. 
If MSO support were removed, then I would have been stuck with using 
MSO. As a side note, the owner of the publishing company was so 
impressed with how well this worked, that internally they moved to OOo 
and then published their templates in ODF format.

I download numerous MSO files from numerous sources. if LO is not able 
to read these files, well, then I need to purchase MSO (and a Windows 
computer) so that I can read them.

Do you ever have reason to open an MSO file? Ever try to send an ODF 
file to a neighborhood or club mailing list? I receive the same reaction 
as when someone sends out a MS Publisher file that is not supported 
outside of MS Publisher. "Hey, what is that file that I cannot open?"

I do believe that MSO now supports ODF files, so perhaps...

--
Andrew Pitonyak
My Macro Document: http://www.pitonyak.org/AndrewMacro.odt
Info:  http://www.pitonyak.org/oo.php


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