Re: [gnome-db] Re: GRAND MASTER PLAN

[Josh Sled <jsled-gnomeoffice asynchronous org>]

On Thu, 2004-03-11 at 12:44, Alessandro Bottoni wrote:

> Alle 13:12, mercoledì 10 marzo 2004, Christopher Browne ha scritto:
> > Yeah, I keep wondering why people keep pointing at AbiWord as the
> > would-be "report presentation" tool.
> 
> Because it is much easier and much more rewarding to build up a document 
> _destined to be printed on paper_ with a wordprocessor (or even a DTP system) 
> than with a tool aimed to matrix-arithmetics like a spreadsheet.

Eh, it goes all ways.  I hate paper.  I never want to be constrained by
8.5 x 11 inches of dead-tree.  I want hyperlinks and interactivity.
Others don't. But, you're right: documents destined to be printed on
paper should be created in a tool which bridges abstract data and
physical paper.


[speaking WRT gnucash, mostly:]

1/ There is a large class of users who want to print stuff, either for
mailing to customers or personal record-keeping or whatever;
word-processors [and maybe DTP/page-layout] are ideal for them.

2/ There is a class of users who want to import the data into gnumeric
to do ANOVA to try and detect patterns in their spending.

3/ And there's a large class of users who just want to see a graph and
tables with subtotals within GnuCash, in a view-only mode.

It's of course ideal to accomodate them all, though I'd propose a
general ordering of: 3,1,2.

AbiWord is one element of a class of tools which should consume data
from other programs and allow formatting thereof.  Gnumeric may be
another, and "GnomeReports" another... I think the key is to focus on
the data and messages between the apps, decoupling them so the user can
choose the appropriate tool to satisfy their goal.

Put another way: we should focus on the means by which to describe the
data so AbiWord _and_ Gnumeric can use it with as little data-lossage as
possible, and the user can use the one best suited for their task.

...jsled

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