*BSD News Article 67127


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From: jgoerzen@complete.org (John Goerzen)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX)
Date: 24 Apr 1996 23:14:14 -0500
Organization: Communications Centre (+1 316 367 8490)
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Justin "Rhys Thuryn" McNutt (rhys@vortex.cc.missouri.edu) wrote:
: Terry Lambert (terry@lambert.org) wrote:
: 
: : ] Too short sighted.  Did Netscape go and write a Word6 compatible
: : ] WWW browser?  No.  Applications *don't* live forever (Word6
: : ] cannot load Word3 documents, for example).
: 
: Yeah, but Netscape isn't a word processor.  Besides, if Netscape *could* 
: read Word 6 files directly as "web pages", it would be a hell of a feature.

A useless feature that would add unnecessary code bloat to an already
too-large program.

: So you just write two modules:  tex2msw6.o and msw62tex.o.  Distribute 
: them pre-compiled with the source for the rest of the package.  Be 
: happy.  The Linux word processor just has to be capable of reading and 
: writing Word docs.  It doesn't have to reveal how it's done.

Why?

Word isn't a standard under Windows.  Around here, most people I know run
WordPerfect.

The only true multi-platform, popular, familiar, and publicized standard
capable of handling all necessary information for multiplatform document
transfer, conversion, and processing that we have to date is PostScript.

And we already have GhostScript.

: --------
: If you can lead it to water and force it to drink, it isn't a horse.
: 
: Got a Linux problem?  Or can you help others solve them?  Visit the Linux 
: Common Problems page at http://vortex.cc.missouri.edu/~rhys/linux.html
: 
: rhys@vortex.cc.missouri.edu
-- 
John Goerzen  Custom programming   | Preserve our 1st Amendment Rights   |
                                   | Free Power!  Run you computer faster|
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