Interview with Dominic Lachowicz of Abiword

Ur@eus writes: "We have just put up an interview at Linuxpower.org with Dominic Lachowicz of Abiword. I think it is an interesting read where Dom talks about what features are currently implemented, and what are underway. Abiword belongs to a very small elite of Free Software GUI applications which runs on almost all major desktop platforms without any emulation."

Comments

Document formats

[PCM2]

I can't imagine anybody will be able to argue that Microsoft Word is not, far and away, the dominant product in the word processor field, and has been for some time.

For this reason, I think it's at least worthwhile to have an Open Source project that tracks the MS Word format. Any OSS word processor that is going to succeed must support the most commonly used features of Word documents. This is not an option, it's mandatory!

If I wanted to switch to AbiWord while the rest of my organization used MS Word, I would be decreasing the productivity of the entire group, not just my own. This is the #1 reason for Microsoft's dominance in the office space: every Mac and every Windows machine in a given workgroup can all speak the same language. Any OSS alternative that's to succeed has to play ball.

That having been said, I don't necessarily think the creators of an OSS word processor should be the same ones worrying about what MS is doing with its document file format. Maybe a separate group, dedicated to an OSS translator of Word-format documents, would be sufficient? Let the word processor people worry about making a good, feature-rich word processor and text editor. Let someone else worry about the file formats. (Apple actually took this approach a few years back, upon realizing it was at a disadvantage to Windows in terms of file-format compatibility, when it took to bundling MacLink Plus with all new Macintosh computers...)
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Abiword for Mac OS X?

[VValdo]

As I understand it (from reading the list archives), it's being worked on as we speak, but... man, would it be nice to see it come out, especially since I understand Office for OS X isn't ready and won't be till the summer. (That's right, right?)

If we can get people using it on OS X (instead of Word, say), I'm sure even more developers could be attracted, which would help the project as a whole.

W
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An illogical direction?

[SnakeStu]

Forgive my late entry into the world of AbiWord, I'd never heard of it until today. After familiarizing myself with it (to the extent possible in the limited time frame), I wonder if it is a good tool built to serve an illogical purpose -- specifically, to provide broad platform support for a vast array of proprietary document formats. Given the "infinite" number of proprietary formats that may appear, isn't this essentially a set-up for failure? All it takes is releasing a new (and modified) version of a currently-supported format, or a new format, to put AbiWord further back on the support meter.

Is it better to continually develop more palliative treatments to hide symptoms of a disease as it mutates rather than seek an actual cure? I think not. While finding the cure may be daunting, the process itself may lead to tangential benefits (even if the cure is never completed), and if the cure is attained then mitigating the symptoms immediately becomes irrelevant.

In this case, the disease is an over-abundance of document formats. It would strike me as wiser to narrow down the format array than to try to match it as it grows. Continued support for archaic formats should be limited to batch translation to newer formats; contemporary but obscure formats should be dealt with at the publisher level to eliminate the proprietary format in favor of an equally-suitable format (preferably a non-proprietary format, as it would be unwise to suggest that any given publisher try to continue playing catch-up with another publisher's format).

Re:Abiword is good, but just isn't there yet

[Nerant]

In that case, wait for tables to be implemented.
Even better, if you code, you could help out with the development of said feature.

I'm curious to know what you mean by "full featured word processor". =)

The importance of cross-platform development

[goingware]

I should say right up front that although I subscribe to the AbiWord list, the following is definitely my own personal opinion and I have no idea how it might correspond to the opinion of any of the AbiWord developers.

I think doing cross-platform development is of critical importance both to the software developer and the public. Find out why at:

• Freeing the Developer from OS Vendor Shackles

There are a number of cross-platform application frameworks, one of which is the framework AbiWord is built on. Others you may be familiar with are the Mozilla framework and GTK+. The above essay is on the website for the ZooLib cross-platform application framework.

You can find a list of many application frameworks in several languages, many of which are cross-platform, and many of which are free or open source, at the GUI Toolkit, Framework page.

Mike

Re:Bonobo?

[rgmoore]

From what I understand, the Bonobo monkeys are filthy hairy monkeys that masturbate in public and have intercourse with whatever they find.. How does this relate to linux?

Bonobo is the name for the GNOME component architecture, which is intended to allow each compliant system to embed other compliant programs and gain their features. This is pretty similar to the way that you can embed any kind of MS Office document in any other kind of MS Office document. I guess that you could view it as allowing the programs to interact with each other promiscuously, although I'm not sure if that was exactly what the designers were thinking when they gave it that name.

FWIW, Bonobos are actually apes, not monkeys, are sometimes referred to as pygmy chimpanzees, and are believed to be the species most closely related to humans.

Lyx, Latex

[BetaJim]

If you can escape using MS for personal documents then Latex or Tex is the answer. The format is plain text. If you can't get Word to format a document you recieved your SOL. With Tex you can just cut and paste the text.

If a person is really interested in reading a document 10 years from now a Word format will not be used. I have backed up documents now that I can't read.

Does a writer really want to loose access to a document they have written? If you use a document format that isn't open you can count on loosing access.

The real answer is to use ASCII or some format that uses plain text. If you have read "In the Beginning..." by Neal Stephenson you know of these difficulties.

If your profession depends on what you write make sure that your documents are backed up as ASCII or someother easy to get at format. Backing up a .doc file is not a backup.