From: msevior_at_physics.unimelb.edu.au
Date: Fri Apr 23 2004 - 19:39:02 EDT
>
> Hi Dom,
>
>> However, having the ability to turn off BiDi
>> altogether seems like an unambiguously bad idea.
>> Please explain why Average Joe User will want this
>> capability and how it will benefit his AbiWord
>> experience.
>>
>
> It is not intended for the average user, nor I have any desire for us
> to build and distribute AW wihout bidi; this is something that was
> requested by guys who are going to use AW as the wordprocessor for a
> particular embeded device where space and processing power is a
> premium and bidi support is not required. I thought it better to add
> a handful of preprocessing directives myself then to have the guys to
> have to hack at this in their own tree. In anycase, I am going to
> make sure that the users are aware that the embeded version of AW is
> only a slimmed down version.
>
> As far as the particular embeded project is concerned I will let you
> know more when I have a clearer picture myself.
>
Do no more until you see the colour of their money and even then please
consult us first. While BiDi is certainly "your baby" it does impact the
rest of the project in a very significant way. Putting in the ability to
turn off BiDi processing is something decided not to do ages ago since it
adds to the complexity of the application. Even thinking about how to do
it distracts you from what the rest of the project needs from you.
That statement from me sounds really weird in the context of a free
software project and I've been guilty of the same behaviour myself. It's
partly from my experience that I give the above advice. Of course your
time is yours to spend how you wish.
Put it this way, you've added a new feature that will now require care and
feeding from one of the most valuable of our core developers (you!).
Cheers and best wishes,
Martin
Martin
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