From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: main.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Paul Thompson Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.help Subject: Re: (Slightly Off-Topic) Emacs-like Office App Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 15:00:38 -0600 Organization: Washington University in St. Louis Sender: help-gnu-emacs-admin@gnu.org Message-ID: <3DC199F6.5080205@wubios.wustl.edu> References: NNTP-Posting-Host: main.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: main.gmane.org 1036098469 29707 80.91.224.249 (31 Oct 2002 21:07:49 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@main.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 21:07:49 +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 187MXb-0007j1-00 for ; Thu, 31 Oct 2002 22:07:47 +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 187MXe-0005vY-00; Thu, 31 Oct 2002 16:07:50 -0500 Original-Path: shelby.stanford.edu!newsfeed.stanford.edu!logbridge.uoregon.edu!canoe.uoregon.edu!aanews.merit.edu!gumby.it.wmich.edu!newsreader.wustl.edu!not-for-mail Original-Newsgroups: gnu.emacs.help Original-Lines: 67 Original-NNTP-Posting-Host: w2000-paul.biostat.wustl.edu Original-X-Trace: newsreader.wustl.edu 1036097615 8823 128.252.117.116 (31 Oct 2002 20:53:35 GMT) Original-X-Complaints-To: usenet@newsreader.wustl.edu Original-NNTP-Posting-Date: Thu, 31 Oct 2002 20:53:35 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en Original-Xref: shelby.stanford.edu gnu.emacs.help:106631 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:3181 X-Report-Spam: http://spam.gmane.org/gmane.emacs.help:3181 have you ever heard of TeX/LaTeX???? Todd Wylie wrote: > 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! >