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Open Source Software Serves Niche Markets
mahendra writes "News.com is carrying an article about localisation of OpenOffice.org.
'So, what's new about that?', you may ask. The article talks about the potential markets that proprietary software markets are ignoring. By the time they realize the potential, Open Source software will have made deep inroads into these markets..."
Localization of software is one of the easiest things to do *IF* your software is set up properly.
Coming from Canada, where everything is in French as well as in English, I learned very early on (like day dot,) that you had to set up your software without any strings in it.
By using only symbolic references and setting up a dictionary of text strings or icon references you can refer to any 'local' attribute without having to muck with the code.
By switching the dictionary you can then switch the language that your users see without any performence hits and without any code changes.
Furthermore, by laying out the text in ''plages'' and letting the dictionary fill in the details, you achieve a much simpler screen and.or prport layout.
Debugging is easier too since you refer to the symbols you used for programming instead of whatever your users refer to (as this changes almost from user to user.)
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They do this by making those that are interested fund the development. For example the Linguistics Institute of Ireland worked on the Irish Gaelic spell checker. The Welsh work was undertaken by the University of Wales and the Welsh Language Board.
It will be.Just ask those guys:
-Tim Morley (timsk@openoffice.org)
-Joey Stanford (k0fcc@openoffice.org)
They are "Revising Glossary & Translating Files"
My journal. Mainly about freedom.
As for Classical Greek, it may have escaped your notice that it has developed into modern Greek. I guess a different typeface might well fix it (capitals only and the sigma is different.)Actually, the Omega (not the Sigma) is usually written differently. Classical texts have been written in minuscles for several centuries, so you'd also need them for ancient Greek. And you'd need even more than in modern Greek: where modern Greek's demotiki has one accent, ancient Greek (and the church's ye-olde form katharewousa) has three accents plus two spirits plus the iota subscriptum plus most combinations of the former three.
Looks at his copy of OpenOffice...
Exel Solver: OpenOffice Goal Seek (we have matlab already)
PowerPoint Pack-n-Go: OpenOffice export including Flash export.
Clippy: OpenOffice help (without stupid paper clip)
Hows that?
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Wouldn't dream of it. Octave all the way.
flossie
Write now. Defend liberty
The only "features" that are somewhat missing, is a nice looking interface under MS Windows (see below), and a ton of pre-created images, templates, web sites, etc. (not that anyone ever uses these anyways.
Something to consider though are the features OpenOffice.org has that MS Office doesn't. Such as, licensing issues, ability to create documents using the stylist (awesome feature), and IMHO once you learn to use OOo, it is actually easier to use than at least MS Office 2K (I never had the need to get Office XP)
As for the nice looking interface issue, Ximian has created an awesome looking theme for OpenOffice.org, and I happened to create a theme based on these icons for Windows users. Check it out at my website
There are a few issues with themeing currently, such as not being able to use png files, etc. But these issues are being worked on.
I am also starting to create some content for Draw that I will donate back to the project so it can be used instead of MS Visio.
All in all the future looks very bright for OpenOffice.org !!