RE: The Tempest

[Gregory Leblanc <GLeblanc cu-portland edu>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Mohring [mailto:heretic ihug co nz]
> 
> A collection of application does not a make office suite, 
> they have to be 
> integrated to the point where they share :- 
>  cross application scripting ( OpenOffice does this very well ),
>  compound document inclusion ( bonobo ),
>  reasonably common "look and feel" GUI. 
> 
> IMO There will be four distinct classes gnome office suites that could
> co-exist for some time to come ... 
> 
> Dramatis Projectus ( Guess who learnt latin from Road-Runner 
> cartoons ) 

Hmm, if I wanted to be mean, I could comment here...

> Prospero : the right Duke of Milan.
> 	The Gnome foundation's environment
> 	i.e. Gnome services, existing and future
> 	Including New office gnome services such as
> 		Virtual Enterprise Interface and Peer server
> 		( a user can serve many masters - see later email ).
> 		Cross Application Scripting

What are you trying to say here?

> And four classes of gnome office "suite" projects ...
> 
> Spirits :Iris,Ceres,Juno etc. 
> 	e.g.. Gnumeric, Dia, Evolution, Gimp 
> 	Existing native gnome applications - together as a suite.

What's this spirits thing?  Why not just say "GNOME Office out of existing
applications" and not confuse the matter any more?

> Sycorax : a Hag.
> 	e.g.. OpenOffice Koffice XEmacs-Gtk Abiword Gnucash
> 	Cross platform with a gnome-fied port.
> 	for each existing office suit and app, not native to gnome,
> 	get each to work within gnome and accept and serve bonobo'd 
> 	objects.

So this is another possibility for GNOME Office?  I somehow think not.  Abi
isn't really in this class, and I think Gnucash is being changed so that it
uses at least GTK+ natively, if not GNOME.  So, two apps that are clearly
NOT GNOME, and two that are, along with xemacs, which doesn't really belong
in an Office suite (it's a text editor, not a WP, IMHO)

> Caliban : a savage and deformed Slave (Son of Sycorax).
> 	e.g. like gmc ( the gnome-fied Midnight commander )
> 	A new gnome foundation project. 
> 	Rip source code from existing Hags and Spirits, and patch it
> 	together.

So convert an existing project to use GNOME?  I don't think this makes any
sense, as we've already got some very good Native GNOME apps (gnumeric,
achung, etc)

> Ariel   : an airy Spirit.
> 	e.g. like nautilus 
> 	A more ethereal new gnome foundation project.
> 	Taking existing source from applications only as a guideline,
> 	design a new suite from scratch.

No, this doesn't make sense, we've already got some of the pieces for GNOME
office written, there's no need to start over.

> Each has pros and cons for the programmer and user.
> 
> Spirits 
> 	Pros
> 		Mostly working now
> 		Native to gnome 
> 			- smaller memory footprint
> 			- better performance.
> 		Mostly share gnome look and feel.
> 	Cons
> 		Lack functionality of Open ( and MS ) Office
> 		Not so integrated as a suite.

GNOME doesn't have any components that are finished right now, of course
it's not integrated and doesn't have all of the required/requested
functionality.

> Caliban 
> 	Pros
> 		Under "direct" gnome foundation control 
> 		Could take OpenOffice and replace VCL with 
> 			C++ wrapped Gnome-Gtk
> 		Could start hacking straight away.
> 		Would perform better under gnome than OpenOffice. 
> 	Cons
> 		Would fork the entire OpenOffice project.
> 		Would the performance gain be worth the hassle?
> 		Could end up like "gmc".

Way too much work here, especially since we already have some components
being written natively.

> [ Please cut out above this line if just answering the following]
> Which then begs the questions ...
> 
> Would it be too wasteful to develop the above projects in parallel?

All four of the above "things"?  Absolutely, the last suggestion isn't going
to happen, especially since there are apps already being written.  I think
that GNOME Office will come from integrating existing applications better,
and completing these applications.  There are exactly zero "finished" pieces
of a GNOME Office suite.  There are quite a few being written.  I think that
before we can even think about integration, we need to have applications
that are feature-complete and stable alone.  Once that's done, then
integration work makes sense.

> Is there a real demand for a native gnome suite?

Hmm, not sure what you mean here.  GNOME needs to have an office suite in
order to provide a complete, "free", desktop environment.

> Which is worth pursuing in the short/long term?
> 	Spirits
> 	Sycorax 
> 	Caliban 
> 	Ariel

I answered that above.

	Greg