Subject: Re: AbiWord vs. WordPad
almustafa@juno.com
Date: Fri Mar 24 2000 - 08:02:53 CST
has word count been implemented in the windows version yet?
On Thu, 23 Mar 2000 22:29:00 -0800 Paul Rohr <paul@abisource.com> writes:
> The latest slur I've heard about AbiWord goes something like this:
>
> "oh, it's just WordPad, not a real word processor"
>
> Admittedly, we've still got plenty of features to write, but I'd
> like to
> encourage anyone with some spare time to help put that absurd myth
> to rest
> once and for all.
>
> Say you ignore our three greatest advantages:
>
> 1. we run everywhere, not just Windows
> 2. we're Open Source, not proprietary
> 3. we're extensible and getting better every day, not frozen in
> time
>
> Even so, there's simply no comparison between the two products.
>
> things WordPad can't do at all...
> ---------------------------------
> - read Word95, Word97, or Word2000 documents
> - spell check with squiggles and personal dictionary
> - page view
> - sections and columns
> - page and line breaks
> - page margins
> - paragraph spacing
> - line spacing
> - justified text
> - paragraph and character styles
> - superscript / subscript
> - zoom
> - word count
> - change keybindings
> - change localizations
> - exporters: UTF8, LaTeX, HTML
>
> they try, we do better...
> -------------------------
> - undo (one step vs. infinite undo with coalescing)
> - ruler
> - paragraph dialog (no comparison whatsoever)
> - tabs dialog (as soon as it's done)
>
> where we're still behind...
> ----------------------------
> - page setup
> - turn off status bar and toolbars
> - cheesy bullet hack
> - handle Windows Write (.wri) documents
>
> To be fair, though, there's one place where WordPad will stay
> "ahead" for a
> while yet -- they've got a whole bunch of menu items to allow you to
> insert
> random OLE objects in your ultra-boring documents. Big whoop. How
> many
> people do you know who've paid the big bucks for *other* Windows
> software to
> create those OLE objects? And how many of them use WordPad? Right.
>
>
> I'd rather use a real word processor than be stuck with a crippled
> toy.
>
> Paul,
> feisty guy
>
Matthew Stapleton
visit my web site at http://webpages.marshall.edu/~staple12
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