From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Tomas Hlavaty Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Emacs as a word processor (ways to convert Word/RTF proprietary files) Date: Fri, 25 Dec 2020 11:59:12 +0100 Message-ID: <87r1ne40e7.fsf@logand.com> References: <0E591E8B-FD55-4829-8421-6F2C02AFD20C@mit.edu> <83eejenvy2.fsf@gnu.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="2457"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" To: emacs-devel@gnu.org Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Fri Dec 25 12:00:48 2020 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1kskpx-0000Uw-Lf for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Fri, 25 Dec 2020 12:00:45 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:46374 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kskpw-0000Oh-MG for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Fri, 25 Dec 2020 06:00:44 -0500 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:52888) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kskoY-0007qD-IL for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 25 Dec 2020 05:59:18 -0500 Original-Received: from logand.com ([37.48.87.44]:41152) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1kskoW-0001eF-Il for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Fri, 25 Dec 2020 05:59:18 -0500 Original-Received: by logand.com (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 63C7B19F140; Fri, 25 Dec 2020 11:59:14 +0100 (CET) X-Mailer: emacs 26.3 (via feedmail 11-beta-1 I) In-Reply-To: <83eejenvy2.fsf@gnu.org> Received-SPF: pass client-ip=37.48.87.44; envelope-from=tom@logand.com; helo=logand.com X-Spam_score_int: -18 X-Spam_score: -1.9 X-Spam_bar: - X-Spam_report: (-1.9 / 5.0 requ) BAYES_00=-1.9, SPF_HELO_PASS=-0.001, SPF_PASS=-0.001 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no X-Spam_action: no action X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:261732 Archived-At: > This is why it would be useful to have this kind of capabilities in > Emacs: to enable users to visit MS Office documents with "C-x C-f", > edit them in some specialized WYSIWYG Emacs mode, and finally save > them with "C-x C-s". If under the hood this runs some converters, it > doesn't matter. Note that this will never be perfect so we need some nuance here and perhaps address useful use-cases. > And there's no real Free Software alternative, certainly not based on > Emacs. There are and there could be. Here a rough list of use-cases with increasing complexity: 1) Reading abw, docx and odt documents as text is very simple in Emacs without any extra dependencies: https://logand.com/sw/emacs-unoffice/file/emacs-unoffice.el.html 2) Reading them as graphics documents is also pretty simple with some extra dependencies: https://logand.com/sw/emacs-framebuffer/file/emacs-framebuffer.el.html 3) Another use-case is to save a buffer to office document. This should be pretty simple to implement too. 4) Another use-case is to open, edit and save existing office document and preserve as much original stuff as possible. This should be possible but lots of work. 5) Another use-case is WYSIWYG 3). 6) Another use-case is WYSIWYG 4). Dealing with office formats is not a pleasant experience so I am skeptical that volunteers will devote so much time to the use-cases with the highest complexity. It would therefore be good to make Emacs useful at least for the low complexity use-cases.