Jody: We grabbed nearly all test files from the web. These are actual files that ordinary users have created and that were available for download at some place, and we used them to hone our Excel import filters for PlanMaker.
The problem is usually not files that have only been edited in one version of Excel, but went through different versions and service packs of Excel, OpenOffice, Gnumeric, whatever. Maybe the files are not valid anymore according to the "official" specs, but as long as Excel (and PlanMaker) read them and display them correctly, they _are_ correct for the regular user.
P.S.: I still have that e-mail from you in my box. Sorry for not getting back sooner...
I receive several hundred spam messages _per day_ (thank you, Mr Bayes, to make that bearable), and have never been offered anything I would want to buy. I don't know, maybe spam would be less sucky if they ever offered anything worthwhile...
Usenet is as usable today as it has always been. Just get a Usenet provider with _heavy_ spam filtering (for example, individual.de, which is free), and Usenet is a wonderful experience.
SQL Server CE != SQL Server
Pocket Word != Microsoft Word
Pocket Excel != Microsoft Excel .NET Compact Framework !=.NET Framework
Windows CE API != Windows 32 API
See a trend there? Microsoft marketing tries to make them seem all the same, but no CE technology or app is even close to its Windows counterpart.
Which is a shame, Pocket PCs could be great mobile computing platforms if Microsoft dared more.
Re:Anybody using Solaris x86 on the desktop?
on
Solaris 9 x86 Review
·
· Score: 1
Chance yes, certainty not... It's the same question for us as I posted for Solaris x86: how many Solaris desktop users are actually out there?
We are currently fixing big-endian/little-endian issues in the source code which will open TextMaker for Linux/PPC, AIX, and Solaris/Sparc.
Is anybody using Solaris x86 on the desktop, or is everybody just running it on servers?
We have ported our TextMaker word processor to Solaris x86 (after Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Pocket PCs, and Handheld PCs) but I am not sure if it is worth releasing it and having to support yet another platform.
So... is there a significant number of Solaris x86 desktop users?
We had a nearly-finished OS/2 version of TextMaker in 1996, but since then, interest in OS/2 software has declined so much that we never completed it, let alone release it.
If and when we do ports, we'll never again use emulation libraries. We used Micrografx Mirrors to port DataMaker to OS/2 in 1995/1996, and I never want to experience such a nightmare again.
If you have a.doc file that gets imported incorrectly, you might want to send it to support@softmaker.de for inspection. We are always improving the filters, and many of the improvements are based on user feedback.
- Wordperfect isn't being developed anymore, and the WINE port they did was not really well-received, to put it mildly.
- Abiword and Kword don't have enough features to make them viable for the office, and they don't provide good Word file compatibility.
- LaTex is great for those that know how to use it, but your typical non-tech person won't grok it.
- OpenOffice is too bloated for my taste.
- What's the point in running Linux when you use MS Office through WINE? It will be slow, resource-hungry and is cost-prohibitive.
The main points that TextMaker has going are:
- Fast (should launch in one or two seconds on most machines) and compact (if your WM is fast enough on your machine, so will be TextMaker).
- TextMaker provides solid MS Word compatibility, in quite a few cases better than OpenOffice or StarOffice.
- TextMaker is multi-platform: Runs on FreeBSD, Linux, Windows, Pocket PCs, Handheld PCs and soon Palm OS 5.
- Usability, usability, usability: Everything is where you expect it to be. Clean user interface, clean dialog box design. Text frames, picture frames etc. are shockingly easy to use. Mail-merge is a snap.
Not yet. We have the building blocks (we just completed a complete AutoShapes drawing layer for TextMaker and PlanMaker), but we need to build a user interface and a significant symbol library around it.
Slashdot Mirror
Jody: We grabbed nearly all test files from the web. These are actual files that ordinary users have created and that were available for download at some place, and we used them to hone our Excel import filters for PlanMaker.
The problem is usually not files that have only been edited in one version of Excel, but went through different versions and service packs of Excel, OpenOffice, Gnumeric, whatever. Maybe the files are not valid anymore according to the "official" specs, but as long as Excel (and PlanMaker) read them and display them correctly, they _are_ correct for the regular user.
P.S.: I still have that e-mail from you in my box. Sorry for not getting back sooner...
Martin Kotulla
SoftMaker Software GmbH
-Martin
-Martin
SQL Server CE != SQL Server
.NET Compact Framework != .NET Framework
Pocket Word != Microsoft Word
Pocket Excel != Microsoft Excel
Windows CE API != Windows 32 API
See a trend there? Microsoft marketing tries to make them seem all the same, but no CE technology or app is even close to its Windows counterpart.
Which is a shame, Pocket PCs could be great mobile computing platforms if Microsoft dared more.
We are currently fixing big-endian/little-endian issues in the source code which will open TextMaker for Linux/PPC, AIX, and Solaris/Sparc.
We have ported our TextMaker word processor to Solaris x86 (after Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Pocket PCs, and Handheld PCs) but I am not sure if it is worth releasing it and having to support yet another platform.
So... is there a significant number of Solaris x86 desktop users?
Now he works for Cheatham, Swindle & Swine.
Good question. We have been shipping TextMaker for only about 6 months now, so we still have a bunch of marketing things that we want to do.
How's PlanMaker coming along?
Press preview this week, public beta shortly after that.
Heh, we are also working on Solaris (x86 and Sparc) and AIX versions ...
Is this still so?
If and when we do ports, we'll never again use emulation libraries. We used Micrografx Mirrors to port DataMaker to OS/2 in 1995/1996, and I never want to experience such a nightmare again.
How far along is OpenOffice for OS/2?
If you have a .doc file that gets imported incorrectly, you might want to send it to support@softmaker.de for inspection. We are always improving the filters, and many of the improvements are based on user feedback.
TextMaker doesn't do Unicode yet. This is planned for a future release. Currently, we only do one-byte character sets with left-to-right writing.
#if !defined(DWFREEBSD) && !defined(DWSOLARIS)
fd = open("/dev/tty10", O_RDONLY);
if (fd == -1) return(FALSE);
ioctl(fd, KDMKTONE, (DUR << 16) + (1193180 / frq));
#endif
No, I simply try to avoid doing business with litigious people.
"Appears" is the correct term. It's a straight X app without any external library references except for Xlib and glibc. Definitely no Qt in there.
For BeOS, amount of work vs. userbase is not really attractive (FreeBSD was one changed line in the source code).
TextMaker costs either EUR 49.95 or US$49.95.
No. It "looks" like a Qt app, but everything is homegrown.
It got us posted on Slashdot...
BTW, here is a good comparison of TextMaker and a bunch of other word processors.
- Wordperfect isn't being developed anymore, and the WINE port they did was not really well-received, to put it mildly.
- Abiword and Kword don't have enough features to make them viable for the office, and they don't provide good Word file compatibility.
- LaTex is great for those that know how to use it, but your typical non-tech person won't grok it.
- OpenOffice is too bloated for my taste.
- What's the point in running Linux when you use MS Office through WINE? It will be slow, resource-hungry and is cost-prohibitive.
The main points that TextMaker has going are:
- Fast (should launch in one or two seconds on most machines) and compact (if your WM is fast enough on your machine, so will be TextMaker).
- TextMaker provides solid MS Word compatibility, in quite a few cases better than OpenOffice or StarOffice.
- TextMaker is multi-platform: Runs on FreeBSD, Linux, Windows, Pocket PCs, Handheld PCs and soon Palm OS 5.
- Usability, usability, usability: Everything is where you expect it to be. Clean user interface, clean dialog box design. Text frames, picture frames etc. are shockingly easy to use. Mail-merge is a snap.
Get the trial version of TextMaker if you think this is just marktin' speak...
Not yet. We have the building blocks (we just completed a complete AutoShapes drawing layer for TextMaker and PlanMaker), but we need to build a user interface and a significant symbol library around it.
Just for kicks, we did an x86 Solaris port in an afternoon. I guess we'll do a few more Unices -- except for Unixware, of course.
Usenet.
-Martin