From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: bobstopper@australispro.com.au Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: (Slightly Off-Topic) Emacs-like Office App Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 10:14:28 +0800 Sender: help-gnu-emacs-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: <20021031021428.GB18113@australispro.com.au> NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1036030488 12373 80.91.224.249 (31 Oct 2002 02:14:48 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 02:14:48 +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 1874r8-0003DQ-00 for ; Thu, 31 Oct 2002 03:14:46 +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 1874ry-00030R-00; Wed, 30 Oct 2002 21:15:38 -0500 Original-Received: from list by monty-python.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.10) id 1874qv-0000nz-00 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 30 Oct 2002 21:14:33 -0500 Original-Received: from mail by monty-python.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.10) id 1874qs-0000gX-00 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 30 Oct 2002 21:14:32 -0500 Original-Received: from australispro.com.au ([203.59.125.227] helo=babelfish.australispro.com.au) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.10) id 1874qr-0000aP-00 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Wed, 30 Oct 2002 21:14:30 -0500 Original-Received: from babelfish.australispro.com.au (bobstopper@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by babelfish.australispro.com.au (8.12.3/8.12.2/Debian -5) with ESMTP id g9V2ESE3019217 for ; Thu, 31 Oct 2002 10:14:28 +0800 Original-Received: (from bobstopper@localhost) by babelfish.australispro.com.au (8.12.3/8.12.2/Debian -5) id g9V2ESsr019215 for help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Thu, 31 Oct 2002 10:14:28 +0800 Original-To: help-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.28i 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:3150 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:3150 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!