I, for one, think its a great idea. I've never understood why some programs are much larger than others when they have similar feature sets. For example, I often use another free word processor, Atlantis Nova, which fits on a single floppy (both the setup file and the installed program). Compared with Abi, it's short on features (no spell checker or editable header/footer support - a shareware version has a spell checker). By comparison, Abi is, right now at least, a 4.4 meg install file. I'd love to see the size reduced to floppy size. But, not being a programmer myself, I don't know what this would entail or if it is even possible.
I think the sad reality is that, with large hard drives, easy internet downloads, and CD-RW, the floppy is all but dead and few programmers are developing their work with the floppy disk in mind. It's a shame, especially in the free software arena where many financially strapped users continue with older, slower hardware and are in need of extremely efficient code. Virgil >From: Joerg Schlueter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: stand-alone-package of Abiword fitting on a single floppy (one >file/selfextracting archive) >Date: Tue, 5 Feb 2002 06:37:15 -0800 (PST) > >Hi, > >for a long time now, I�m a user of this great word >processor AbiWord. I�m not a programmer at all, so I >never thought that it could happen to me to post an >idea to this mailing list. > >But there�s one idea not referring to features or >coding, but in general referring to the installation >of Abiword: I thought about some kind of >stand-alone-version in one file, that e.g. fits on a >simple floppy disk or could be started simply by >opening the "package file" (SFX-Archive) in Internet >Explorer. > >Please don�t misunderstand my suggestion: Most of us >have Abiword installed on their home-PC and won�t want >to take it with them on a Floppy Disk. But think about >all that students at university, where just Wordpad or >Word(viewer...) are installed because the admin >doesn�t trust OpenSource (because he trusts the >MS-"philosophy") - they will have to use MS Word. If >they have a PC of their own (not every student got >one), they will buy a commercial wordprocessing >package for their home-PCs because they don�t know how >to split e.g. the Abiword installation file on 4 >Floppy Disks so that they can take it with them to >have it their home-PCs. > >Today, a girl I know urgently needed a good word >processor for writing a text at home on her >new-installed PC (OS Win95), and so I came to think: >what about having everything on one single floppy, no >need to tell people: "do this, do that, then install >..." - just: "all you need is starting that single file >on this floppy", or: "launch >http://......abiword.exe in your Internet Explorer >[most beginners only know that browser], then you got a >word processor in that university CIP-Pool". > >This isn�t a really great idea, I think, but could >bring much more people to use Abiword. Those people, >not yet "lame" (I would simply call them "beginners", >maybe they will become advanced users in the future), >otherwise wouldn�t have a chance to take anything else >than that normal Word97/2000 or Wordpad. > >I uploaded the file I took at >http://members.xoom.it/j0erg/AbiWord.exe, it�s 1.20 MB >- without language codes, helpfile and spell checker, >and all I can say is: I think it�s very practical. > >Think about other apps like K-Meleon >(http://kmeleon.sourceforge.net) - it would impower >the not-advanced user to use Opensource-Software >without having to know anything about >software-installation. > >Please tell me what you think about my idea, and >please don�t be angry if you disagree with it or >because of my bad English; I know I�m sending this to >a mailing list of very good coders, and have much >respect referring to your great work. > >All the best >Joerg > >__________________________________________________ >Do You Yahoo!? >Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings! >http://greetings.yahoo.com > >----------------------------------------------- >To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to >[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word >unsubscribe in the message body. _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp. ----------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word unsubscribe in the message body.
