Re: Word Processors

[Rebecca Ore <rebecca ore op net>]

On Thu, 17 Sep 1998, Miguel de Icaza wrote:
>> 	 Word processors are notorious for bloat because everyone wants
>> to idiot proof the work against the workers.  There *is* some reason to
>> do this, but I'd rather have a simplier program that they could
>> understand and add modules to as they needed them.
>
>Oh definetly.
>
>Now, the big thing we are trying to push in Gnome is the use of our
>recently finished ORBit CORBA implementation to decompose traditional
>applications in various modules:  The idea is that the various
>components will be actually different pieces of software (either as
>shared libraries or as external processes), thus avoiding bloat on
>components.
>
>> 	 Don't think this is too far off what we've been looking at, but 
>> if we include keystrokes per hour monitoring as a standard feature, I
>> will be kinda annoyed and might kill you in my next novel.
>
>Now, we can always conditionally ignore the stuff like the paperclip
>(ie, click on "I know what I am doing" or "I dont want help from
>you").  And in the worst case, well we ship source code, so it can be
>removed in the worst case.
>
>But the interesting part of the paper clip is not the animation: its
>the logic to figure out what the user is trying to do and come up with
>some help to the user.  IN previous versions of Microsoft Office the
>paper clip was not an animated thing, but just a toolbar that from
>time to time came up with an idea to help you.
>
Tip of the day, very much like the tips in Gimp that I turned off (smiles
slightly).

The guesses that my coworker got in 97 drove him through the ceiling until
someone got it shut off.  

Think more like Reklaw's use of emac's reminders.  Or context sensitive help,
which I guess gets back to what you're suggesting.

By the way, isn't this fairly bloaty?

A friend emailed when I told him what I was getting involved with now.  I'm
quoting 

 On Wed, 16 Sep 1998, Rebecca Ore wrote: 

>        Word Processors are probably the trickiest programs to do right.   
> The user base is ferociously wide from people who hate having to work 
> on computers at all to people who are designing web pages and doing 
> desk top publishing.  I kinda wish the DTP end would to over *there* 
> and be what it is, but it looks like html and similar markup languages 
> are going to be core for more than just Gnome's text handling. 

Ah, so it's a DECwrite clone =)  Remarkably simple to use (also remarkably 
expensive) but it could do anything from simple WP to full-blown DTP if 
you bothered to learn the more advanced features.  Yes, it's exceedingly 
dificult to write a good UI that won't intimidate the uninitiated but 
still offers everything wanted by old hands. 

I don't even know if the DEC program's still being sold, but it was able 
to convert to all sorts of file formats pretty easily, since its native 
format was SGML.  HTML conversions turned out to be a cinch, because that 
also happens to be a flavor of SGML.  Like so many DEC products, it was 
way ahead of its time, and didn't sell too well because people weren't 
prepared to grasp what a cool toy they were being offered. 

-- end quote


Anyone have any experience with this?