>>Rod Engelsman wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5/26/2005 12:40 AM >>>
>> I see two distinct groups of applications: >>1) word processor, spread sheet, drawings, diagrams, presentations >These are "documents". They contain information. >>2) a calendar, an email client, a contact list, an address book. >I'm not sure what to call these, but I think they lie in a category of >their own, and they are different from making documents. >>========================== They're collaboration tools, the same you'd find in any groupware suite. I agree there's a clear distinction between "passive communication" documents and the more active communication above, but with regard to what should be included with OOo, consider the role of the suite. Is it Open "Office" or more Open "Documents?" --I always assumed the former, which to me would include whatever applications are currently useful to office productivity, be they calendars or reference dictionaries. That said, I still wouldn't advocate the development of new calendar, email, etc. applications for OOo; there are plenty of quality open source applications available that already perform those functions. Partner with them formally, develop standard hooks to tie them together, and if including them with releases of the core OOo is an issue, at the very least actively direct users to them. >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5/26/2005 12:40 AM >>> I think there's a difference between creating content and sending it. I recognize that there are fuzzy regions. But you have to draw a distinction somewhere and I think that the distinction I draw is a good one. >>========================== That was true for the last decade, and I'd agree it's still true today. Give it five years and the line will be more than fuzzy. I'd rather be forward thinking than the alternative. >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5/26/2005 12:40 AM >>> I think a web page is a document, a web browser is not a document-creation tool, but a web page making program is. >>========================== So case in point, make a multi-user blog with your creation tool. Is the blog page still just a document? >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5/26/2005 12:40 AM >>> Let's draw a distinction between creating the letter and sending it. An email client's primary function is working with a mail server to send and receive email. >>========================== I don't print documents anymore. As the very most I use a printer once a month. Every document I create is either emailed or posted to file or web servers. I would argue that the print capability built into nearly every document creation tool is identical in function to email. Both allow you and others to work with your document outside of it's local creation. As more offices become paperless, that print function will be used less and less, and tools that don't have the digital alternative will be a problem. If you print a lot, imagine what it would be like if you had to save your document and open an entirely different application to print, every time. Would that slow you down? >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5/26/2005 12:40 AM >>> I don't. I don't think that "office suite" should be "everything you use in an office". I think programs should be reasonably self-contained in sensible categories. Otherwise you get code bloat and the program becomes unmaintainable, big, and a dozen other bad things. >>========================== Well said. But if it's an office tool that's used by most people most of the time, then I'd include that before a less useful purely document creation feature. Interesting topic. thx, --Kevin
