Harold Fuchs wrote: > I help support OpenOffice.org (OOo) in the [EMAIL PROTECTED] mail list. > > We discovered recently that the whole scheme for installing dictionaries in > OOo will change rather dramatically with the advent of v3 and that existing > dictionaries will no longer work. > > I and others believe that this is a huge mistake: > 1. It will give new users the impression that OOo cannot spell check. Or > that spell checking is, by definition, an afterthought implemented by an > "extension" i.e. something *not* in the original software.
Perhaps we have a communication problem. The mere fact that dictionaries will be provided as extensions does neither mean that these extensions must be installed separately nor does it exclude that dictionaries can be installed as single files. I already wrote this on this list some weeks ago. > 2. Many of the dictionaries are provided and maintained by third parties who > do not have the resources or the skills to convert their dictionaries to the > new format. They may not even be aware of the upcoming change. And I don't > believe you have any way of finding them to let them know. The only way to integrate dictionaries into OOo until now was dictooo. So if we consider all dictionaries from there we should have the same level of support as before. > 3. It's regressive in that it kills cooperation with software like > Thunderbird which, today, can use the same dictionaries as are used by OOo. Can they? Without manual fiddling in OOo's configuration? Anyway, OOo3.0 will improve even here: it's enough to point OOo to folders where dictionaries are and OOo will use them. Instead of hacking of dictionary.lst we will use some naming conventions (as other apps also do). I already offered information about that some weeks ago. > Apparently the reason given for the change is that the existing method > requires re-installation of dictionaries after an upgrade to the software. > If this is even half true then it seems to several of us that you have > solved the wrong problem. Instead of changing the format of the > dictionaries, why not just change the place where they are stored to one > that is unaffected by an upgrade to the software: a user specific directory > similar to the one used already to store user specific options which *don't* > change after an upgrade? I don't know but on the face of it it seems that > this "dictionary directory" could even be the same as the one used already > for user-specific options. We didn't change the format of the dictionaries, just the packaging. And we did that in a way that will make it easier for most of our users. > In any case, please reconsider this decision which I and others strongly > believe will severely damage OOo both technically and cosmetically. I don't believe that. If OOo by default comes with a reasonable set of dictionaries, makes it easy to install more of them and offers a way to integrate with dictionaries installed elsewhere in the system we should be fine. Regards, Mathias -- Mathias Bauer (mba) - Project Lead OpenOffice.org Writer OpenOffice.org Engineering at Sun: http://blogs.sun.com/GullFOSS Please don't reply to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]". I use it for the OOo lists and only rarely read other mails sent to it. --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
