From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Nov 17 08:10:39 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 72983DB0 for ; Sat, 17 Nov 2012 08:10:39 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Received: from mx02.qsc.de (mx02.qsc.de [213.148.130.14]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 18B538FC0C for ; Sat, 17 Nov 2012 08:10:38 +0000 (UTC) Received: from r56.edvax.de (port-92-195-8-72.dynamic.qsc.de [92.195.8.72]) by mx02.qsc.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id DAF1824CF9; Sat, 17 Nov 2012 09:10:34 +0100 (CET) Received: from r56.edvax.de (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by r56.edvax.de (8.14.5/8.14.5) with SMTP id qAH8AYZ1001956; Sat, 17 Nov 2012 09:10:35 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from freebsd@edvax.de) Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2012 09:10:34 +0100 From: Polytropon To: "illoai@gmail.com" Subject: Re: "Light" word processor plus the occasional spreadsheet Message-Id: <20121117091034.141859f7.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: References: <50A4B0B0.2020009@eskk.nu> Organization: EDVAX X-Mailer: Sylpheed 3.1.1 (GTK+ 2.24.5; i386-portbld-freebsd8.2) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, Leslie Jensen X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list Reply-To: Polytropon List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2012 08:10:39 -0000 On Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:47:04 -0500, illoai@gmail.com wrote: > Maybe because 20+ years ago I learnt wordstar, so if > you grew up on pointin' & clickin' you'll be sorely dis- > appointed, but I enjoy the jstar mode of editors/joe > (or actually editors/jupp, some dif'rence, mostly). Fully agree for text _creation_ (e. g. as LaTeX sources), joe is a very productive environment if you're familiar with the WS/TP interface. > Pathetic writer, from siag isn't half bad, but you'll have > to build from sources all by your lonesome, & it ain't > gonna work at first. In this regards using already _ported_ software seems to be easier. I've spend some time here to get a "customized" version of OpenOffice (german language variant, _no_ KDE, _no_ Gnome, but sadly _yes_ CUPS even though I don't need it due to a perfectly capable PS/PCL printer). Of course, it's not as easy as "pkg_add -r de-openoffice" anymore. You could install the whole office suite _plus_ the localized dictionary (today missing, needs additional fiddling!) and it worked out of the box. "Modern" software can be different. :-) Luckily, using Abiword doesn't require that much dependencies. Only some Gtk parts ("Gnome parts") are required, but you don't get a full Gnome install "for free". > The downside is the general inability to simply open > /certain proprietary formats/ which libre- & open-office > have. That's correct - LibreOffice and OpenOffice can even open formats that their native producers can't open anymore, like memory garbage left behind by "quick safe" and data files from older "Word" versions which their "modern" successors refuse to open. As long as text is "pure text" or at least some kind of markup or macro language, simply using the preferred text editor will be _the thing_. But people often tend to make things more complicated than they are - for themselves and for others. :-) And maybe new problems arise when working "through" different ISO encodings and UTF... this is where the use of a word processor could avoid problems (if all the required _fonts_ are installed... oh, I'm just substituting one problem with another)... > But then I'm a fan of editing & writing with a simple > editing & writing program & saving all the font & other > extraneous formatting nonsense to a proper layout > program (the old Aldus PageMaker was nice back > in the 1990s, haha): print/scribus might be an option, > except that it pulls in every accursed KDE/qt4 thing > on Earth. That's a different approach that might even go into the direction of layouting or even DTP. In this case, word processors are the wrong tool. So after all, if it's just "people send me some strange 'Word' files and want be to open and maybe change it", a standalone word processor like Abiword looks like the easiest solution. I'd finally like to point to this document which might help to make people aware of _what_ they are actually doing when they're sending memory dumps around: http://en.nothingisreal.com/wiki/Please_don't_send_me_Microsoft_Word_documents Also see the links to "Word processors: stupid and inefficient" and "What has WYSIWYG done to us?" at the end of the page. -- Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...