From: Rui Miguel Silva Seabra (rms@1407.org)
Date: Mon Mar 25 2002 - 11:49:47 EST
On Sun, 2002-03-24 at 20:35, Alan Horkan wrote:
> I find it rude and insulting that you think I was ignorant of other
> the wealth of other obvious solutions.
Damn, I never thought that, I asked why not use them.
There was not intention of either rudeness or insult in my question.
> There was originally an idea, that Abiword would be an office suite
> and/or used for cross platform development.
> I hope that more developers will see the wisdom of developing cross
> platform software. I highly value cross platform software.
xp software is nice. I also think that.
> Does Gnumeric even have a Gtk only version? As far as I know Gnome is
> more likely to run on windows before Gnumeric is.
imho, we should drop wholly the gtk+ only build. However, I can
understand some people want to use gtk+ and no gnome in some situations.
> So telling me to use something else instead is insulting my intelligence,
> telling me to use a program so firmly rooted in Gnome is frankly annoying.
I find extremely annoying the existance of windows. With it millions of
users that know zip shit about what they are doing (even sysadmins)
bring doom to our ages and their collateral damage even awakes me up in
the middle of the night because of problems I have nothing to do with.
Only we have to get a work around (that we wouldn't have to if there
wasn't that horrid platform out there).
> > Ok, I think I can understand the temptation to "become" an office suite,
> > piece by piece or all at once it's the same, but (and maybe I'm just
> > being very obtuse) I really don't understand why do so.
> Because it's there and because why not?
> I was hoping there might be a developer with the same itch and that I
> could encourage them to make a start. I was just making a reasonable
> offer.
Yes. As I was making a reasonable question. No need for so much ado
about nothing.
> > AbiWord as it is gives already so much work to its core developers and
> > is so "incomplete" as far as a decent word processor needs to be (it's
> > more or less on the word pad league on most of the features, but has
> > surpassed it in others).
> AbiWord developers are free to do whatever they like and if my
> proposal takes their interest then so be it.
> It was a proposal with a small monetary reward and you gave me the kind of
> response like as if i had made a whining complaint demanding a feature.
No way dude! Never crossed my mind. You took it too much to your heart.
> You never know it may produce useful ideas towards how tables are
> implemented in Abiword. It may have serve as a fast prototype to be
> junked once it has served it short term purpose.
Tables (as in a word processor) have a bahaviour that's not like tables
on a spreadsheet.
> I cant believe you compared Abiword to wordpad.
What do you want me to compare it with?
MS Word? OpenWriter? At least with WordPad it can already standup
straight and even win in many more situations than against the Word or
Writer.
> > If you're so interested in having a spreadsheet component, I can't see
> I dont want a spreadsheet, and I dont want a component.
Ok, sorry. It did lead one to think you did, though.
> I want a cross platform program seperate from abiword that
> resembles a spreadsheet to achieve a small and very
> specific set of tasks that I would normally do using a spreadsheet.
> I also hoped to encourage *Abisource* developement.
no harm done, I'd say.
> If it does not run on at least Windows and Linux then it is useless to me
> as I expect to be using both Operating systems for the years to come. I
> have paid for windows and there is no way I am throwing it away, even the
> hassle of upgrading to linux is barely worth it. I used windows 2000 for
> about a week before switching back to Windows 98, so my inertia is huge.
Then it's your mistake, right? Shouldn't you, as a costumer, demand Bill
that you should be able to do that? He has dedicated emplyees....
> > like that, then do so, by all means, if you will feel better and more
> > productive that way :)
> > I just pronounced a sensible question... there are quite some office
> > suites that work on GNU/Linux systems, and yet there is not ONE word
> I use Windows, and ocassionaly Linux or BSD. I might buy a Mac when it
> next comes time to upgrade my hardware, who knows what the future will
> bring. I value cross platform software very highly.
Great. gnumeric is awsome, it would be very nice if it could become xp.
I've seen posts on dia, which is also xp although I do not know what
their strategy is, from you. Why not RFE'ing on gnumeric about that?
> > processor that can compare itself at the technical level of LaTeX. Not
> > ONE that can be compared at the easy to use level of MS Word. I think we
> > need to concentrate our efforts into making one hell of a good word
> > processor (that even church secretaries can use). Why waste time on a
> > spreadsheet when there is one hell of good spreadsheet program?
> The greatness of LaTeX and the making of a great word processor have
> nothing to do with my proposal.
This was an argument towards focusing our resources into the one thing
we're doing pretty good become even better: abiword.
> "We" are free to spend "our time" and are resources however "we" choose.
> It would not be a waste of time, it would be a choice. Let a developer
> decide if this interests him (or her), and dont criticise me for making a
> reasonable offer you obviously have no interest in.
I don't think that reading just one side of an opinion is more helpfull
than also reading other sides.
> > Peace... rms
> you argue and complain and then you use an overly informal and friendly
> way to end your message.
That's because I'm arguing, not fighting. There's distinct differences
in both situations.
> how about "Yours Sincerely" or even better the Portuguese equivalent.
And please, refrain yourself from teatching others how to express
themselves, ok?
> I took a long time to carefully consider this reply. I rewrote and
> re-read it several times and I still feel insulted and annoyed.
Then lighten up, go drink a pint of guiness (excellent beer). There was
no insult intended, I repeat.
A huge friendly hug, Rui
-- + No matter how much you do, you never do enough -- unknown + Whatever you do will be insignificant, | but it is very important that you do it -- Ghandi + So let's do it...?
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