From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Todd Wylie Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: (Slightly Off-Topic) Emacs-like Office App Date: 31 Oct 2002 10:42:41 -0600 Organization: Washington University in St. Louis Sender: help-gnu-emacs-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1036082808 24935 80.91.224.249 (31 Oct 2002 16:46:48 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 16:46:48 +0000 (UTC) Return-path: Original-Received: from monty-python.gnu.org ([199.232.76.173]) by main.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1 (Debian)) id 187IT0-0006U1-00 for ; Thu, 31 Oct 2002 17:46:46 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10) id 187ISg-0008Sh-00; Thu, 31 Oct 2002 11:46:26 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!news-spur1.maxwell.syr.edu!news.maxwell.syr.edu!news-out.nuthinbutnews.com!propagator2-sterling!news-in-sterling.newsfeed.com!dfw-feed.news.verio.net!stl-feed.news.verio.net!newsreader.wustl.edu!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 61 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: 128.252.233.238 Original-X-Trace: newsreader.wustl.edu 1036082561 3755 128.252.233.238 (31 Oct 2002 16:42:41 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@newsreader.wustl.edu Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 16:42:41 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) Emacs/21.2 Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:106624 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Errors-To: help-gnu-emacs-admin@gnu.org X-BeenThere: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.11 Precedence: bulk List-Help: List-Post: List-Subscribe: , List-Id: Users list for the GNU Emacs text editor List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: Xref: main.gmane.org gmane.emacs.help:3175 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:3175 bobstopper@australispro.com.au writes: I, for one, would love to see an application that merged the WYSIWYG features of a word processor with the underlying power of Emacs. This may start the old "Emacs is a text processor not a word processor" debate... but there are times when I want a straight ahead editor (programming) and other times I want to view text in a word processor (I'm writing a book right now). Trying to get Emacs to show text in manuscript format is a pain in the butt (double-spacing lines without hard returns, specific margins, headers and footers with page numbers, etc.). However, no word processor I have ever found matches the power and scope of Emacs (try running a regex search in MS Word). I really do wish someone would merge the two concepts someday. If anyone responds directly to you about such a package existing -- please let me know. Thanks- TODD > Hi > > This isn't really a request for help with Emacs but a request for knowledge > on Applications inspired by Emacs, specifically office type Applications. > > I love how Emacs is so extensible and provides so many features due to its > use of modes and elisp. So what I'm (very idly at this stage) considering > is the idea of an office kinda suite (yeah, like M$) all within the one > program through the use of emacs style modes and retaining a lot of > extensibility through a lisp dialect (probably guile). > > Emacs can probably do something similar to what I'm thinking already if > support was written for it, but I'm thinking Emacs would probably remain, > well, ugly in the eyes of typical office workers and it would thus > be unappealing. > > Instead I'm envisioning something that looks a lot like current gnome > office products... only it's capable of doing all of them simply by loading > the appropriate modes (perhaps after first writing them ;). > > Gnome office is a great idea and I think it's a great alternative to M$ > office but I think the idea of having separate programs attempting to > integrate through some additional system like bonobo or OLE will still > remain somewhat unintegrated and perhaps not as consistent in its interface > as what I'm suggesting would be. I imagine typical office users would be > much more satisfied if they only needed the one app that could do everything > and I imagine advanced office users and programmers would be much more > satisfied if they can extend that app to do almost anything they please. > > So if something *better* (rather than just equivalent) than M$ office is > written as part of the GNU/Linux project then we have much more clout for > winning the average user over. I imagine for this sort of goal the app > would almost certainly have to have a fully featured M$ Windows port so > it can first appeal to all these M$ windows users, and once they're won > over it's a small step to realising that if everything they need for > office work is in that app, and that app is available on GNU why not just > use GNU? > > So, with that description of my infant idea in mind, I have a couple of > questions: > > Does anyone know if something like what I'm describing already exists > or is in the process of being written etc? > > and of course: > > Is my idea stupid, infeasible, lacking in some major consideration, too > damned hard etc or is it actually a good idea? > > I'm looking forward to any kinds of comments/suggestions. Thanks!