In a world of Windows, Word, WordPerfect 8, Linux, Unix, Macs, Star
Office, Applixware, Maxwell, Works for Windows, etc., etc., etc., there
seems, to me at least, a tremendous need for a simple, easy to use,
word processing suite that is cross platform compatible -- a suite that
allows me to download my supplier's catalog in MS Word format,
government docs in Word Perfect format, my daughter's "Great American
Novel" written in Maxwell, my sister's annual Christmas news letter
written with Works for Windows and to be able to read these documents,
to edit these documents, to print these documents and to create new
documents that users of these other programs can open and manipulate as
well.
Grammar and style checkers already exist. The English language is rich
in contradictory rules and it's beauty is often revealed only when the
rules are broken. I defy anybody to devise a grammar or style checker
program that will accommodate the diverse needs of technical writers,
journalists, novelists and college students.
If the developers of abiword concentrate on the technical problems of
cross platform compatibility, page formatting, WYSIWYG displays that
don't match the printed page and a myriad of other details that must be
dealt with to make abiword a reliable OS and format transparent word
processor, it will have greater utility and value than if they are
diverted into the back streets of grammar and/or style checking in a
world with many languages and dialects.
Consider the fact that if abiword achieves the other goals, it will be
possible to create a document in abiword, edit that document with an
existing grammar checking program such as that found in MS WORD and then
distribute the document to the world in formats that are compatible with
all.
So, to the developers of abiword: Make the code work, forget the
grammar, and you will have a world beater -- the Unified Field Theory of
Word Processing...Allow yourselves to be diverted into gimmicks and you
will create just another bug ridden word processor.
Colin Mattoon