Generally, Python is the preferred choice for LibreOffice macros. It's a lot better than Basic for medium-sized macros. For a long time, I've felt that this is a major advantage that LibreOffice has over MS Office.
It sounds like this could be a significant step forward for MS Office.
From reading the article summary, I thought this guy has no clue, but after looking at the blog, it sounds like the author has some interesting ideas. Teaching these kids programming of any kind is quite ambitious, but from the blog it sounds like the author realizes this.
I have some experience with this sort of thing in southern India, and in my experience, one challenge was typing. The people who were learning computers had done mostly outdoor work and their fingers hadn't gotten used to the fine motor skills required for typing.
Word processing and spreadsheets is a good thing to focus on, and it's easy for students, teachers and parents to see why it's important. I did actually suggest some games, but the idea didn't go over very well. I'm not sure that approach is really a good one in India.
Using python with dialogs from inside LibreOffice/OpenOffice works well. Complex programs can be built this way -- I have a 10k LOC add-on that interacts with libraries and files external to Office, as well as Writer and Calc. My project uses only modal dialogs, but non-modal should be possible too -- see https://forum.openoffice.org/e....
How easy is it? Not exactly easy; requires some digging, but there are forums available if you get stuck. Python is easier than Java for working with the UNO API, and allows more structure than Basic, so it's a good choice.
On my machine (LibreOffice 5, Windows), Tango is the automatic (i.e. default) theme, showing lowercase "a" icons.
Galaxy seems to be the default for OpenOffice, and it shows the traditional B/I/U icons. Switching LibreOffice to Galaxy and changing icon size to small (both under Tools -> Options -> View) makes the icons look an awful lot like OpenOffice.
Many updates seem to slow it down, but after some updates I've actually seen it get faster.
If speed is a higher priority than software compatibility and saving time then by all means go with Linux on the desktop. For myself, the speed of a modern Windows desktop (with Linux in virtual machines) is fast enough.
"I think the one thing I regret the most is giving people the impression I cared about politics and getting involved in something that had nothing to do with me."
If you start with assumptions about the outcome you don't have science.
Science typically starts out with a prediction of the outcome, which is a theory. For example there used to be a theory that objects in their natural state are at rest. After centuries of testing, it was finally discovered that this was false.
Regarding origins of human life, Darwin proposed that the mechanism of evolution could explain it. Creationists assert that evolution is not an accurate picture of how life came about, and the idea that after billions of years we just emerged is a little silly. In my opinion, what science should do is investigate the evidence for these opposing theories. Both of these make certain predictions about what the fossil record should contain for example.
So, I am very much in favor of what the State Board in Texas is trying to do (by the way, I am from Texas, so this could potentially affect my kids). Isn't critical thinking supposed to be encouraged in schools? However the popular idea seems to be that we should try to silence opposing viewpoints. At least, that's how it often seems on slashdot.
So we know there were changes. Sometimes "dramatic" changes.
Calling the changes "dramatic" is qualitative and subjective. Here is a more objective statement: Only one actual doctrine is questionable based on grounds of textual differences, that of snake handling. So while I'm not sure at what exact point in Saul's reign the events of 1 Samuel 13 took place (verse 1 has several variants), there's no reason to question whether the Bible really teaches that we should honor our father and mother.
Agreed, quality rather than quantity is needed now. However I don't think that's because of anything they've done wrong in the past. The original emphasis on quantity was a good way to get started. It's just that an adjustment needs to be made now that the project has gotten to this point.
So fast forward to the present and present your average Office user with Open Office. What is the win for them?
We use a lot of specialized VBA macros written for Word 2003 that are currently not compatible with 2007 and higher. When I rewrote and improved several of them for Writer using Python, it helped get some of our users interested in OpenOffice, because now it could do something that MS Office 2007 and higher could not.
To me, the ability to use Python is a significant advantage, although the MS Office API may be easier to use than the OpenOffice API, for example when using cursors. Average Office users won't care about macro languages, but if it results in more usable macros that they rely on, then it becomes important to them.
Quirk, yes, but not by any means unusual. In non-artificial languages, the most commonly used words often have irregularities, such as "to be" (English am/are/is; Spanish soy/eres/es and Hindi huun/ho/hai are likewise irregular).
Getting your world view from slashdot is delusional. Seriously, a bunch of nerds telling people what they should believe?
Lately it seems like politics and religion get more discussion here than computer related news. It's too bad, because I suspect that most people, like me, read this site because of its technical content.
It's not like the phone game because it's written, and the record is traceable. The Masoretes for example were a group of scholars dedicated to preserving the written record as closely as possible for many years. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were uncovered, they showed that the most recent manuscripts had very few differences from those compared with what could be deciphered from the records apparently written in about 300 A.D. The differences that were found were mostly minor wording or spelling changes with no doctrinal differences, except in the odd doctrine of snake handling -- it's not clear from the manuscript evidence whether that was encouraged in the original Greek documents.
Agreed, the Gospels were written down about 40 years after the original events took place, based on eyewitness interviews and what people remembered. It would be like writing about the Vietnam war today after talking with people who remember it.
A lot of the gospels that weren't included in the canon were Pseudepigrapha, meaning that they were not written by who they claim to be written by, and are therefore false. That seems like a good reason to not include them.
Interesting comment about the Apostle Paul. Actually he addressed your criticism by saying that while some people say they follow Paul's teachings, and others say they follow Apollos's teachings, there shouldn't be any difference -- It's all based on the teachings of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:3-8). I will not comment further, since Paul himself offered this defense.
Ok, let me try to be more clear about that particular issue. Really the timing of Gen 2:19 is ambiguous; looking at that verse alone, it is possible to argue that beasts were created after Adam. Or it can be taken to mean that it was simply referring to the beasts that had already been created, as the NIV which I quoted makes clear. My point was that it is easy to reconcile the two by simply answering that beasts were created first, then man. Therefore it does not seem like an example of a clear contradiction.
If you want me to answer more than half of them, then just how long do you want my response to be? However, since you ask, let's pick another one. How about the second item listed: War or Peace? Well, we see examples throughout the Bible of God punishing evil, so the "War" part is probably not what's being questioned here. How does the "Peace" part work? One main way is with Jesus, whose sacrifice makes it possible for sinners (read: people whose punishment was deserved) to be at peace with God. Is the person who made the list suggesting that "War" means that God would just kill everyone, and "Peace" means that God would not ever kill anyone? That assumption would be the only way I can see for calling this a contradiction.
One more... "Who was at the Empty Tomb?" It's true that John doesn't mention that Mary the mother of James was there, but we know she was there because it's mentioned in Matthew and Mark. Where is the contradiction here? Simply the fact that one of the writers didn't happen to include a detail?
I appreciate your response this time. I haven't looked through the whole list, but at least some of them seem easy to answer. For example, "Which first--beasts or man?" Clearly looking at both narratives, beasts were created first, then man. Gen 2:19: "Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field..." Do you really find the entire list from this link convincing? If not, perhaps you could mention some that you think make sense.
You obviously haven't read much of it if you didn't realize it contradicts itself. The Gospels don't even agree on details and most of the stories of Jesus you hear around Christmas and Easter are actually picking and choosing from the different Gospels to make a somewhat coherent fable.
Actually I have read "much of it" -- all of it in fact, more than once. Yes, there are certainly differences in many details in the Gospels. Do you read newspapers? Two different articles typically describe events from different points of view, adding different information. Surely you will agree that such differences do not necessarily imply contradiction.
Slashdot Mirror
Generally, Python is the preferred choice for LibreOffice macros. It's a lot better than Basic for medium-sized macros. For a long time, I've felt that this is a major advantage that LibreOffice has over MS Office.
It sounds like this could be a significant step forward for MS Office.
Yeah this is the first I heard of the new name.
From reading the article summary, I thought this guy has no clue, but after looking at the blog, it sounds like the author has some interesting ideas. Teaching these kids programming of any kind is quite ambitious, but from the blog it sounds like the author realizes this.
I have some experience with this sort of thing in southern India, and in my experience, one challenge was typing. The people who were learning computers had done mostly outdoor work and their fingers hadn't gotten used to the fine motor skills required for typing.
Word processing and spreadsheets is a good thing to focus on, and it's easy for students, teachers and parents to see why it's important. I did actually suggest some games, but the idea didn't go over very well. I'm not sure that approach is really a good one in India.
I'd rather have neither riches nor poverty, and be happy.
Using python with dialogs from inside LibreOffice/OpenOffice works well. Complex programs can be built this way -- I have a 10k LOC add-on that interacts with libraries and files external to Office, as well as Writer and Calc. My project uses only modal dialogs, but non-modal should be possible too -- see https://forum.openoffice.org/e....
How easy is it? Not exactly easy; requires some digging, but there are forums available if you get stuck. Python is easier than Java for working with the UNO API, and allows more structure than Basic, so it's a good choice.
On my machine (LibreOffice 5, Windows), Tango is the automatic (i.e. default) theme, showing lowercase "a" icons.
Galaxy seems to be the default for OpenOffice, and it shows the traditional B/I/U icons. Switching LibreOffice to Galaxy and changing icon size to small (both under Tools -> Options -> View) makes the icons look an awful lot like OpenOffice.
Recently I put in a bug report for AOO and after a few months they had a fix incorporated into a new release. It seems like there is still life there.
On the other hand, LibreOffice didn't have that bug at all. I like the streamlined feel of AOO, but LO is so much further ahead.
Many updates seem to slow it down, but after some updates I've actually seen it get faster.
If speed is a higher priority than software compatibility and saving time then by all means go with Linux on the desktop. For myself, the speed of a modern Windows desktop (with Linux in virtual machines) is fast enough.
It was because you can't have a "Union" unless there was the right to succeed.
succeed: (1) achieve the desired result. (2) take over a throne or other office.
secede: withdraw formally from membership in a federal union.
Although the other meanings could fit this sentence, I think you mean secede.
If you are working on Windows, it is possible to do the same with C# using a CLI interface wrapper. I have no idea if that trick works on Linux/Mac.
We have a .NET C# project that uses C++ code for the nitty gritty bits, and it runs under mono on Linux. Don't know about Mac.
Vim is my staple, but Notepad/Wordpad are still occasionally useful for their simplicity and for Unicode rendering.
"I think the one thing I regret the most is giving people the impression I cared about politics and getting involved in something that had nothing to do with me."
If you start with assumptions about the outcome you don't have science.
Science typically starts out with a prediction of the outcome, which is a theory. For example there used to be a theory that objects in their natural state are at rest. After centuries of testing, it was finally discovered that this was false.
Regarding origins of human life, Darwin proposed that the mechanism of evolution could explain it. Creationists assert that evolution is not an accurate picture of how life came about, and the idea that after billions of years we just emerged is a little silly. In my opinion, what science should do is investigate the evidence for these opposing theories. Both of these make certain predictions about what the fossil record should contain for example.
So, I am very much in favor of what the State Board in Texas is trying to do (by the way, I am from Texas, so this could potentially affect my kids). Isn't critical thinking supposed to be encouraged in schools? However the popular idea seems to be that we should try to silence opposing viewpoints. At least, that's how it often seems on slashdot.
So we know there were changes. Sometimes "dramatic" changes.
Calling the changes "dramatic" is qualitative and subjective. Here is a more objective statement: Only one actual doctrine is questionable based on grounds of textual differences, that of snake handling. So while I'm not sure at what exact point in Saul's reign the events of 1 Samuel 13 took place (verse 1 has several variants), there's no reason to question whether the Bible really teaches that we should honor our father and mother.
Agreed, quality rather than quantity is needed now. However I don't think that's because of anything they've done wrong in the past. The original emphasis on quantity was a good way to get started. It's just that an adjustment needs to be made now that the project has gotten to this point.
So fast forward to the present and present your average Office user with Open Office. What is the win for them?
We use a lot of specialized VBA macros written for Word 2003 that are currently not compatible with 2007 and higher. When I rewrote and improved several of them for Writer using Python, it helped get some of our users interested in OpenOffice, because now it could do something that MS Office 2007 and higher could not.
To me, the ability to use Python is a significant advantage, although the MS Office API may be easier to use than the OpenOffice API, for example when using cursors. Average Office users won't care about macro languages, but if it results in more usable macros that they rely on, then it becomes important to them.
...one of those ridiculous English quirks.
Quirk, yes, but not by any means unusual. In non-artificial languages, the most commonly used words often have irregularities, such as "to be" (English am/are/is; Spanish soy/eres/es and Hindi huun/ho/hai are likewise irregular).
Getting your world view from slashdot is delusional. Seriously, a bunch of nerds telling people what they should believe?
Lately it seems like politics and religion get more discussion here than computer related news. It's too bad, because I suspect that most people, like me, read this site because of its technical content.
It's not like the phone game because it's written, and the record is traceable. The Masoretes for example were a group of scholars dedicated to preserving the written record as closely as possible for many years. When the Dead Sea Scrolls were uncovered, they showed that the most recent manuscripts had very few differences from those compared with what could be deciphered from the records apparently written in about 300 A.D. The differences that were found were mostly minor wording or spelling changes with no doctrinal differences, except in the odd doctrine of snake handling -- it's not clear from the manuscript evidence whether that was encouraged in the original Greek documents.
Agreed, the Gospels were written down about 40 years after the original events took place, based on eyewitness interviews and what people remembered. It would be like writing about the Vietnam war today after talking with people who remember it.
A lot of the gospels that weren't included in the canon were Pseudepigrapha, meaning that they were not written by who they claim to be written by, and are therefore false. That seems like a good reason to not include them.
Interesting comment about the Apostle Paul. Actually he addressed your criticism by saying that while some people say they follow Paul's teachings, and others say they follow Apollos's teachings, there shouldn't be any difference -- It's all based on the teachings of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:3-8). I will not comment further, since Paul himself offered this defense.
Ok, let me try to be more clear about that particular issue. Really the timing of Gen 2:19 is ambiguous; looking at that verse alone, it is possible to argue that beasts were created after Adam. Or it can be taken to mean that it was simply referring to the beasts that had already been created, as the NIV which I quoted makes clear. My point was that it is easy to reconcile the two by simply answering that beasts were created first, then man. Therefore it does not seem like an example of a clear contradiction.
If you want me to answer more than half of them, then just how long do you want my response to be? However, since you ask, let's pick another one. How about the second item listed: War or Peace? Well, we see examples throughout the Bible of God punishing evil, so the "War" part is probably not what's being questioned here. How does the "Peace" part work? One main way is with Jesus, whose sacrifice makes it possible for sinners (read: people whose punishment was deserved) to be at peace with God. Is the person who made the list suggesting that "War" means that God would just kill everyone, and "Peace" means that God would not ever kill anyone? That assumption would be the only way I can see for calling this a contradiction.
One more... "Who was at the Empty Tomb?" It's true that John doesn't mention that Mary the mother of James was there, but we know she was there because it's mentioned in Matthew and Mark. Where is the contradiction here? Simply the fact that one of the writers didn't happen to include a detail?
And here is a list of contradictions.
I appreciate your response this time. I haven't looked through the whole list, but at least some of them seem easy to answer. For example, "Which first--beasts or man?" Clearly looking at both narratives, beasts were created first, then man. Gen 2:19: "Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field..." Do you really find the entire list from this link convincing? If not, perhaps you could mention some that you think make sense.
You obviously haven't read much of it if you didn't realize it contradicts itself. The Gospels don't even agree on details and most of the stories of Jesus you hear around Christmas and Easter are actually picking and choosing from the different Gospels to make a somewhat coherent fable.
Actually I have read "much of it" -- all of it in fact, more than once. Yes, there are certainly differences in many details in the Gospels. Do you read newspapers? Two different articles typically describe events from different points of view, adding different information. Surely you will agree that such differences do not necessarily imply contradiction.
If you mean climate control then there are overwhelming boatloads of scientific evidence if you look for it. Years of data compiled and analyzed.
I might agree with you on this, but this statement does not seem helpful without backing it up with data.
And what do you mean "supports the Bible"? I mean the bible doesn't even support itself with all the endless contradictions.
This I don't agree with, and you give no example. Granted many ./ readers seem to share your opinion, but still this isolated comment seems weak.