RE: Way OT: Adam Smith and Software Markets

["Robert C. Leif" <rleif@rleif.com>]

You will first need a version of XForms with an interface to Ada and the
capability of supporting external schema and XSL files. Then, the first part
of an Office type product to create would be a spreadsheet that had unique
user definable names for columns and rows. This spreadsheet could replace
the tables in the other office type products. The macro language should be a
subset of Ada. The graphics can be done in SVG. The formulas would be stored
and visualized with MathML. If Ada 200Y, includes a compile time assertion
for units, then this product would have a very significant advantage for
scientific and engineering uses.
Bob Leif

-----Original Message-----
From: Ludovic Brenta [mailto:ludovic.brenta@insalien.org] 
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 5:28 AM
To: comp.lang.ada@ada.eu.org
Subject: Re: Way OT: Adam Smith and Software Markets

"Marin David Condic" <mcondic.auntie.spam@acm.org> writes:

> I share Dr. Leif's enthusiasm for XML in this regard and I think it
> would be a fine format for storage of lots of things. If someone
> were contemplating building an Ada-Office product, storing word
> processor, spreadsheet, rolodex data, etc in XML would leave the
> door open for lots of other players to utilize the data in some
> form. That would make it an attractive choice for individuals and
> organizations to adopt.

That's exactly what OpenOffice.org does; the file formats used by the
word processor, spreadsheet and all the tools are gzipped collections
of XML files, with some pictures thrown in where necessary.  My only
gripes with OpenOffice is that it's written in C++ and that it has its
own (portable) GUI toolkit.

So, an Ada-Office (using GtkAda, of course) that used the same file
formats as OpenOffice would be a great thing, IMHO.  I'd even be
willing to participate in its development.

--
Ludovic Brenta.