Re: Document Centricity in GNOME [LONG]

[Alan Shutko <ats acm org>]

"Gerry Chu" <gerrychu@bigfoot.com> writes:

> "Open Safely" gives the user the implication that opening a file normally
> using the plain "Open" command in _unsafe_.

Yes.  Isn't it wonderful?  Users _should_ get the implication that
opening a file "normally" is unsafe, because it is.  They should be
afraid of it, and it should take a lot of convincing for them to open
something with macros on.

Yes, macros are wonderful and useful things, but many/most of the
documents that one runs across don't use macros.  And with recent
email worms, just getting a document from a trusted source isn't a
guarantee that it's safe, because their mailer could have sent it
without their knowledge.  In order to open a file with macros, you
should know that it comes from a trusted source, and have confirmation
from that source that you really should open it with macros enabled.

By the time a user starts using macros of their own, they should know
the possible dangers.

-- 
Alan Shutko <ats@acm.org> - In a variety of flavors!
184 days, 13 hours, 6 minutes, 46 seconds till we run away.
I've enjoyed just about as much of this as I can stand.