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OPENOFFICE.ORG NEWSLETTER
Volume 04 - Issue 6 - 12/2006
Please send news clippings to:
newsletter@marketing.openoffice.org
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For up-to-date news visit the OpenOffice.org Newsletter Blog:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com
To read all of this month's stories in full:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_ooonewsletter_archive.html
ATOM feed:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/atom.xml
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Contents
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1. Announcements
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* OpenOffice.org 2.1 Is Here
* Reminder - OpenOffice.org 2007 Conference - Call for Location
* OpenOffice.org contest winners announced
* OpenOffice.org Menu (Firefox extension)
* Chart: Integration Candidate 1 of the chart reimplementation available
2. Success Stories
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* Ministry of Justice of Finland deploying OpenOffice.org
* Open Source CD for Belgium Schools
* OpenOffice.org at Birmingham City Council
* Large Dutch cities supporting open source
3. Featured News
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* What's up in the OpenOffice.org QA Project?
* OpenOffice.org translator wins award
* Brazil recommends ODF
4. Tips & Tricks
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* Article about "Perl OpenDocument Connector"
* Quality and Coding Standards
5. OpenDocument News Roundup
6. Clippings
All news for this month can be found at:
http://ooonewsletter.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_ooonewsletter_archive.html
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Want to help OpenOffice.org? Find out hot to contribute or see our
To Do List!!
http://www.openoffice.org/contributing.html
http://development.openoffice.org/todo.html
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Announcements
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OpenOffice.org 2.1 Is Here
--------------------------
"There are a number of important new features for users in this
release. The presentations application, Impress, now supports
multiple monitors, with the presenter choosing where to display the
presentation. The Calc spreadsheet has an improved HTML export
capability, using styles to better recreate in a browser the
appearance of the original spreadsheet. The database application,
Base, has a number of enhancements, including improved support for
Microsoft's Access product. The popular Quickstarter is now available
for GNU/Linux users as a GTK application. OpenOffice.org's impressive
language support is enhanced with five more localisations."
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=311
Reminder - OpenOffice.org 2007 Conference - Call for Location
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"This is just a short reminder that the deadline for the OOoCon 2007
call for location submissions is December 31, 2006. Thus, there are
just a few weeks left for submitting a proposal. For details, please
read the original call for location email below."
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=announce&msgNo=310
OpenOffice.org contest winners announced
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""OpenOffice.org has announced the winners of its template and clipart
contest. The judges distributed a total of five cash prizes totalling
$1,700 for templates, and three cash prizes totalling $1,300 for clipart,
as well as two Honorable Mentions for templates. In addition, the
project will send T-shirts and other OpenOffice.org merchandise to
many of the other entrants." "
http://www.linux.com/article.pl?sid=06/11/30/1638215
OpenOffice.org Menu (Firefox extension)
---------------------------------------
"This FireFox Extension is supposed to provide an assistance and
decrease the complexity of browsing through the OpenOffice.org site
infrastructure by providing a Firefox menu with the most important
entry points.
...
Furthermore the extension extends Firefox's context menu with an
easy access to the most relevant search engines for OpenOffice.org.
It seeks for an OpenOffice.org bug in the Issuezilla bug database
or start a search at google or wikipedia with the currently
selected text."
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/4102/
Chart: Integration Candidate 1 of the chart reimplementation available
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"A new developer snapshot of the ongoing chart reimplementation is
available for download on the chart website:
http://graphics.openoffice.org/chart/chart.html
...
Be aware that the current download is not an official productive version
but is only provided for testing and feedback purposes. So please don't
use it for regular work."
Source: Email from Ingrid Halama to dev@graphics.openoffice.org
Success Stories
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Ministry of Justice of Finland deploying OpenOffice.org
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"Great news! According to a message on the OpenOffice.org marketing
project mailing list the Ministry of Justice of Finland is deploying
OpenOffice.org to 10,000 Windows workstations."
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/ministry_of_justice_of_finland
Open Source CD for Belgium Schools
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"According to this article the Flemish government in Belgium is
distributing an open source CD to the Flemish schools. The article
includes an interesting statement about OpenOffice.org. According to
the quote, grown-ups are still reluctant to adopt OpenOffice.org
because OpenOffice.org is still something new to them. Kids on the
other hand really like OpenOffice.org because they can install and
use the software at home for free as well."
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/open_source_cd_for_belgium
OpenOffice.org at Birmingham City Council
-----------------------------------------
"He admitted the council's original plans were over-ambitious, with
rollouts of Linux-based staff and public PCs originally scheduled
during the one-year trial period. In reality, ongoing testing of the
desktop configuration means no Linux desktops have yet been installed.
Instead, 96 public desktops and 134 staff desktops are running open
source applications such as the OpenOffice.org office suite and the
Firefox browser."
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;95882990;fp;2;fpid;2
Large Dutch cities supporting open source
-----------------------------------------
"I just found this Dutch article which made me understand the Dutch
situation a little bit better. Apparently the eight Dutch cities are
combining forces in order to put some pressure on their IT partners and
IT suppliers, so that they also support open source alternatives.
According to the article, several smaller Dutch cities have already
adopted open source technologies like OpenOffice.org, but often had to
deal with the problems themselves. Apparently, the eight cities want
to increase their influence in the IT market and make themselves heard
with respect to their open source requirements by closely collaborating
together."
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/update_regarding_the_dutch_cities
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/large_dutch_cities_supporting_open
Featured News
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What's up in the OpenOffice.org QA Project?
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"The QA project did and do a extraordinary job. They find a huge mass of
bugs in the product, release many smaller or bigger features and verify
also a mass of fixed issues (concrete numbers for the last releases I
will post in one of my next blogs). It's a pleasure to see the work of
the community. They confirming issues, making L10N QA, releasing the
L10N builds and making QA for platforms which are not supported by Sun.
But the mass of daily work on the product is done by the Sun QA team.
Check fixed issues in a CWS, check the fixes in the master build
(developer snapshots) or what ever, why this work cannot be realized
in the community more than now? One unclear issue can be the questions
'who should organize that work?' and 'who should be responsible?'."
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/what%27s_up_in_the_openoffice.org
OpenOffice.org translator wins award
------------------------------------
"Dwayne Bailey, Managing Director of Translate.org.za, was present to
receive the award. He challeged all present by saying that they had two
choices. The first is to let technology mould them and in effect become
the new colonialist, and the second, to take action and be proactive in
ensuring that their mother tongues are used and supported in technology.
And that they would know in the future when they sit and speak to their
grandchildren, that they had made the correct choice."
http://translate.org.za/content/view/1728/51/
Brazil recommends ODF
---------------------
"With the publication of version 2.0 of its e-Ping Interoperability
Framework*, Brazil becomes the first country in South America to
officially recommend ODF. The framework states that all .xls, .doc
and .ppt files are in transition, meaning they do not comply anymore
with its technical policies, and that ODF is now the Brazilian
Government's officially recommended format."
http://www.datamanager.it/articoli.php?idricercato=17447
Tips & Tricks
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Article about "Perl OpenDocument Connector"
-------------------------------------------
"The Perl Review just published an article by Jean-Marie Gouarné about
the Perl tools for ODF. The first page of the article can be found here.
However, for the full article one needs a subscription."
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/article_about_%22perl_opendocument_connector%22
Quality and Coding Standards
----------------------------
"One possibility to address these are coding standards. Not standards
that describe conventions, or to make things prettier. But standards that
collect what by today's knowledge is best practice when writing
OpenOffice.org code. Idioms that prevent potential bugs, make code easier
to understand and less dangerous to change, habits that lessen the danger
of oversights, rules that ensure correct use of dangerous C++ features.
...
We drew from various resources, most important were texts of acknowledged
C++ experts (e.g. Herb Sutter, Scott Meyers, Andrei Alexandrescu), or
software maintainability and refactoring (e.g. Martin Fowler),
successful projects (the boost project's coding standards) and the
existing OpenOffice.org coding guidelines."
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/quality_and_coding_standards
OpenDocument News Roundup
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Peter Korn comments IBM's accessibility announcement
----------------------------------------------------
"Today, IBM has announced their contribution of the IAccessible2
accessibility programming interface for Microsoft Windows. This interface
is an extension of the Microsoft Active Accessibility API (and most
specifically of the Microsoft IAccessible interface - hence the name
IAccessible2). This extension of MSAA fills in the many gaps of MSAA by
extending it to essentially match the Java Accessibility API and the
GNOME/UNIX Accessibility API (in fact, if you look at the
IAccessibleRelation header file or the other IAccessible2 header files,
you'll see they bear a Sun Copyright from 2000 and 2006 because
iAccesible2 was derived directly from the OpenOffice.org UNO
Accessibility implementation for use in both the Java platform and
UNIX environments)."
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/peter_korn_comments_ibm_s
ODF Accessibility Evaluator
---------------------------
"An interesting new tool, the ODF Accessibility Evaluator, is being
developed by a team of students at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign."
http://blogs.sun.com/korn/date/20061208
http://odf.cita.uiuc.edu/
"Office Open XML Fact Sheet" by the ODF Alliance
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http://www.odfalliance.org/resources/OfficeOpenXMLFactSheet.pdf
ODF white paper by the OASIS ODF Adoption TC
--------------------------------------------
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/21449/oasis_odf_advantages_10dec2006.odt
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/21450/oasis_odf_advantages_10dec2006.pdf
Is Office Open XML A One-Way Standard? Ask Microsoft
----------------------------------------------------
"Breaking out my envelope again, we’re now looking at 150 man years to
do the job for a competitive PPA. How can competitors afford to make
that level of investment?"
http://blogs.adobe.com/shebanation/2006/12/open_xml_one-way.html
ODF support in Apple tool!?
---------------------------
"Interesting! According to this blog entry Apple is adding ODF support
to their TextEdit tool. "
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/odf_support_in_apple_tool%21%3F
About Microsoft's lobbying in MA
--------------------------------
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20061204084504239
"MA Governor-Elect Names MS Anti-ODF Lobbyist to Technology Advisory Group"
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"That person is Brian Burke, the Microsoft Regional Director for Public
Affairs, and if that surprises you, it surprises me as well, given the
degree of acrimonious debate and disinformation witnessed in Massachusetts
over the last 15 months involving the Information Technology Division's
transition to ODF.
What does that bode for the future of ODF in Massachusetts? On the one
hand, it turns out that both Deval Patrick and Brian Burke were part of
the Clinton administration, and their acquaintance presumably stems from
that time period rather from than a recent introduction. On the other
hand, it is my understanding that it was Burke who led the lobbying
effort on Beacon Hill against ODF, and also urged legislators to
introduce the amendment intended to take away much of the ITD's
planning power generally, and as regards standards specifically, and
hand it to a task force made up of political appointees."
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20061128161343183
ODF spec published by ISO
-------------------------
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/iso%2Fiec_26300_%28opendocument_v1.0%29_is
Clippings
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* What's going on in the framework project
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/what_s_going_on_in
* Updated Uno Web Pages
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/updated_uno_web_pages
* Collaborative Specification Editing in the Wiki
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/collaborative_specification_editing_in_the
* StarOffice/OpenOffice.org for Java Developer?
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/staroffice_openoffice_org_for_java
* Development at a Glance - Weekly Update CW51
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/development_at_a_glance_weekly6
* Does the latest MS Word exploit also affect OpenOffice.org Writer?
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/does_the_latest_ms_word
* What a bit of code cleanup can do...
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/date/20061214
* A First Signal From The Graphics Project
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/entry/a_first_signal_from_the
* Download Pages and Bouncer
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/date/20061207
* Still not bored by being surveyed?
http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS/date/20061201
* My list of Mac OS X annoyancees
http://blog.janik.cz/archives/2006/12/21/T08_25_27/
* Microsoft Works import filter for OpenOffice.org
http://fridrich.blogspot.com/2006/12/microsoft-works-import-filter-for.html
* Native port : one more developer
http://eric.bachard.free.fr/news/2006/12/native-port-one-more-developer.html
* The Case for ODF--Presentation Given in Seoul, December 2006
http://homepage.mac.com/luispo/blog/C564357417/E20061213185635/index.html
* On clean reusable interfaces and the pleasure to see things happen
http://fridrich.blogspot.com/2006/12/on-clean-reusable-interfaces-and.html
* New OpenOffice.org book published
http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/2006/12/i_am_extremely_.html
* "How Vista Lets Microsoft Lock Users In"
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=196601781&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_All
* Authors for OpenOffice.org print magazine wanted
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/authors_for_openoffice.org_print_magazine
* "Vista too power hungry for corporate PCs"
http://blogs.sun.com/dancer/entry/%22vista_too_power_hungry_for
* Open Schools Alliance
http://www.openschoolsalliance.org/
* "MS Office 2007: The great Gamble"
http://www.ciol.com/enterpriseconnect/content/article.asp?artId=91563&secId=1596
Newsletter Archive
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Past issues of the OpenOffice.org Newsletter can be found in the archive
of the announce mailing list:
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/SummarizeList?listName=announce
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