Re: embedded equation component manifesto (long)

[Michael Meeks <michael helixcode com>]

Hi Paul,

On Mon, 28 Aug 2000, Paul Topping wrote:
> So, IMHO, here are the features needed for a container/embedded object
> system to support equation editing well.

        I read your errudite mail with great interest, many thanks for
expressing your needs so concicely.

> Before I get into my list, I'd like to set the record straight with
respect
> to my company's relationship to Microsoft. I am the president of the
company
> so this IS Design Science's official opinion ;-).

        And I am very excited that you are taking the time to help us out
with designing this part of our component system. It is very much
appreciated.

> Gnome interfaces that I've seen so far. There seems to be a tendency
among
> the "open software" community to dismiss Microsoft apps and operating
> systems as "brain dead". This is terribly naive.

        Well, as you can see the Bonobo designe is based heavily on
COM. We don't have some bigoted view of Microsoft's code and
design whatever our personal views of its business practices may be. So,
we are very interested in seeing

        a) What Microsoft does
        b) Where they went wrong

        so that we can improve on what they have.
  
> I intend the above to be taken as a challenge to do better than
Microsoft
> and to also say that it won't be easy. It won't be enough to simply be
an
> enlightened open source programmer that hasn't yet sold his/her soul to
the
> devil.

        Yes, of course. The GNOME project always has been a massive
undertaking. However, given that there is currently no support for what
you want, it should be easy to write the standard interfaces, such that
when people come to implement them, it will be easy for them to do it  
right.


        So; here is the crux of the issue. The best way to get support for
your features into bonobo is this:

        a) Split your requirements into related blocks of functionality

        b) Post an idl interface for discussion for each interface ( in a
separate mail )

        c) Discussion phase

        d) We include some or all of your idl interfaces as part of the
standard Bonobo interfaces collection.

        e) We wait for AbiWord / Sun / whomever to implement them.

        Sadly we have little control over e) outside implementing it in
gnumeric, mostly the important thing is to standardize the interfaces.

        Regards,

                Michael.

-- 
 mmeeks@gnu.org  <><, Pseudo Engineer, itinerant idiot