On 01.11.2012 17:45, robert_w...@us.ibm.com wrote:
A quick note, wearing my "IBM hat".
We (IBM) have consulted with customers, internal users, other IBM product
teams, on what our (IBM's) development priorities should be for the next
AOO release. Obviously, we're not the only ones with priorities or
interests or opinions. We don't make AOO decisions by ourselves. But we
want to be transparent about what our own priorities are, for our
employees participating in the AOO community, and what they will be
focusing on. As we did with AOO 3.4.0 and 3.4.1, we'll be putting the
details onto the wiki over the next couple of weeks. You'll hear more at
ApacheCon, but I wanted you to hear it hear first.
Our top priorities:
-- Improve the install and deployment experience, especially by supporting
digital signatures on installs, and introducing a new incremental update
feature, so users are not required to download and install a full image
for just a minor update.
-- A major UI enhancement, a sidebar framework for the editors, ported
over from Symphony, and including an API. If you recall, Symphony won
quite a lot of praise for its UI, and much of this was due to the sidebar
panel. I think we can make a good argument that this approach, say
compared to the MS Office "ribbon" is a better use of screen real-estate,
especially as we see more frequent use of wide screen displays.
-- Improved Table of Contents in Writer
-- Improved system integration on Windows and MacOS, including possible
adoption of "gestures".
-- IAccessible2 bridge, ported over from Symphony, to improve
accessibility. This is a major effort, but very important.
I will be talking about IAccessible2 as stand in for Steve Yin at the
ApacheCon.
Please meet me there at 11:45am on Nov 6 (Level 1 Left).
-Andre
-- Closer integration of clipart and template libraries with user
experience.
-- Update branding and visual styling, contemporary and compelling, fresh
and relevant.
-- Social integration, allow our users to quickly and easily share their
thoughts in a way that compliment their commercial social behavior.
Explore the integration of consumer service-specific capabilities as well
as generic Share... actions.
-- And many other smaller items
Obviously the release date for this cannot be pinned down so early, and
releasing is PMC decision, not an IBM one. But we think that this work
could be completed and tested for a release in the March/April 2013
time-frame. And the scope of the release might be significant enough to
warrant a "4.0" designation.
In any case, we'll soon set up a page on the wiki to collect these items.
As always, I invite you to add your own priorities to the wiki, things
that you would like to work on. This could be a new feature. Or, if one
of the above items sound interesting to you, we always welcome help
designing and implementing these features.
Regards,
-Rob
