Subject: Features V stability
From: Neil Timms (neilt@netvigator.com)
Date: Thu May 03 2001 - 16:03:47 CDT
Some thoughts from a users point of view (mine).
I'd rather have stability than more features but I think that the real issue
is not features but compatibilty with existing data. The abilty to be able to
load existing word and rtf documents into Abi word and then save them again
as word or rtf is more important than features in abiword.
The hold of propriety software is in my opinion more effective through
control of the file formats for data rather than the feature set of the
programs themselves. Most users never use most of the functionality of Word
but they do get locked in to using Word because of the need to exchange data
with others who are also locked in to Word. Present users with a reliable
path to exchange data and the features will be less important provided the
basics are catered for.
I used 0.7.13 for a 20+ pages legal style document and found that is was
easer to use than other wp for numbered paras (well done those who worked on
that bit) - the problem came when saving to rtf so that I could exchange my
data with others still using Word - no numbers on the para (I think now fixed
for 0.7.14?). The issue in the end was was not so much in the use of the
program but in the format of the data.
I guess I'm saying that more effort on the data exchange issues would be
better than more effort on features.
Only my opinion.
Cheers
Neil
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Sat May 26 2001 - 03:51:25 CDT