From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.4 required=5.0 tests=AC_FROM_MANY_DOTS,BAYES_00 autolearn=no autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit X-Google-Thread: 103376,92c39a3be0a7f17d X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-ArrivalTime: 2001-12-11 09:37:39 PST Path: archiver1.google.com!news1.google.com!newsfeed.stanford.edu!newsfeeds.belnet.be!news.belnet.be!psinet-eu-nl!psiuk-p4!psiuk-p3!uknet!psiuk-n!news.pace.co.uk!nh.pace.co.uk!not-for-mail From: "Marin David Condic" Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada Subject: Re: Future with Ada Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 12:14:14 -0500 Organization: Posted on a server owned by Pace Micro Technology plc Message-ID: <9v5et8$pfd$1@nh.pace.co.uk> References: <9v57u1$mfb$1@nh.pace.co.uk> <3C163AAB.1C8EEA69@san.rr.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: dhcp-200-133.miami.pace.co.uk X-Trace: nh.pace.co.uk 1008090856 26093 136.170.200.133 (11 Dec 2001 17:14:16 GMT) X-Complaints-To: newsmaster@news.cam.pace.co.uk NNTP-Posting-Date: 11 Dec 2001 17:14:16 GMT X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4522.1200 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4522.1200 Xref: archiver1.google.com comp.lang.ada:17771 Date: 2001-12-11T17:14:16+00:00 List-Id: The problem is that Micro$oft uses "MS-Word-Compatibility" to kill their competition. As soon as you can suck up an MS-Word file and spit one out, they go and change the format and you're forever playing catch-up. Not a good thing. However, if your program works with XML, , you may miss compatibility with MS-Word, but you've got compatibility with a whole slew of other things instead. What you are hoping for is that XML gains enough critical mass (as did HTML) that Micro$oft is adapting to *you* instead of the other way around. IOW, for maybe 90% of my needs, I don't really care what the format is so long as I can read and edit it and people in my office can read and edit it. MS-Word (if it can't already) eventually will want to read & write XML. So *my* editor is slick and spiffy and runs on Suns and PCs and Linux and Macs and anywhere I care to go *and* will spit out something the MS-Word Ludites can still look at. Where is the problem? I wouldn't be adverse to including an Import/Export feature for any number of popular WP formats - but I don't think that should be at the core. Its an add-on that can be built anytime by anybody. (Thats why its in source, right? :-) The point being that you've got a spiffy word processor that works just about anywhere - including over the net because it uses XML as its storage format and GUI - and that's an incentive for people to want to use it. If a whole office suite comes out of it, people might get really attracted to it as an alternative to being tied to Micro$oft or Sun. MDC -- Marin David Condic Senior Software Engineer Pace Micro Technology Americas www.pacemicro.com Enabling the digital revolution e-Mail: marin.condic@pacemicro.com Web: http://www.mcondic.com/ "Darren New" wrote in message news:3C163AAB.1C8EEA69@san.rr.com... > > Well, if it doesn't read and write MSWord files, then it's not going to > be very popular. If it does read and write MSWord files, then why would > someone prefer it over MSWord or over any of the other MSWord-compatible > suites (like StarOffice)? > > You need something that everyone will want that *hasn't* already been > done but that everyone wants. Something like OpenSSL would have been > good, except it's been done already. > > -- > Darren New > San Diego, CA, USA (PST). Cryptokeys on demand. > You will soon read a generic fortune cookie.