> I posted a little while back on developing C++ port of POI, so that 
> KOffice could use POI to develop filters for Excel and Word.  It now
> appears that developing a C++ port isn't necessary anymore, because it 
> turns out that we can invoke the Java code from C++ using GCJ [1].

Interesting.  I think thats splendid.  BTW, there may one day be a port of POI 
to D (www.digitalmars.com/d)

> There is some discussion on the KOffice mailing list about how they are 
> going to implement filters.  Currently there are two proposals, the first 
> is to use the OpenOffice file format and re-use the OpenOffice filters 
> for MS Word, and the second is to use the Apache POI library compiled 
> under GCJ.

Well how well does GCJ work?  

> The advantage of using the existing OpenOffice filters is that they 
> are already developed for Word as well as Excel.  However, Apache POI 
> seems more suitable in the long term, since the quality of the code seems 
> to be much higher than the OpenOffice filter code.  Does anybody have any 
> thoughts on this?

advantages:

* Higher quality, better documented, more modular code
* Committment to quality, a gazillion unit tests
* Community developed and supported with no funding from Sun et al. (well nothing 
direct
at least, arguably I'm sure Sun helped pay for Apache's servers somewhere, just a 
guess)
* Ultimately, I think we'll get it more correct.

disadvantages:

* POI is a bit fat memory-wise
* We're a bit behind them at the moment I bet as far as support.
* potential problems with GCJ (only a guess)
* Andy uses Gnome ;-)

I'm totally for this and I'll do everything in my power to help!  

Thanks,

Andy


> Thanks,
> -TJ [http://maxmind.com]

> [1] http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcj/Invocation.html



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