Hi all,
The last open item on the IP clearance wiki page is the removal of the
dictionary module from the AOO source code. In order to provide a
developer build in the near future that does not contain category-x
licensed code we need a short term solution.
The central question is if we have to really remove the dictionaries at
all. I did not see a definitive answer, so to be on the safe side I
assume that the dictionary module should be removed.
This leaves the question of a replacement. One relatively straight
forward way seems to be to use the extensions that can be found at
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/en/dictionaries. Two ways of
using these extensions come to (my) mind:
A. Download the extension (assuming that the right locale can be
detected) automatically from the extension repository during installation.
B. As last step of the installation, pop up a web page that, among other
things, tells the user that there is a dictionary extension that can be
installed and what its license is.
Variant A has the better usability but may not be acceptable from a
legal view.
Variant B would allow to display additional information and could offer
other (dictionary) extensions as well but would require more work to be
implemented.
One problem with both variants is that
extensions.services.openoffice.org already seems to have load problems.
When everybody who installs Apache OpenOffice has to access this
server then its load would increase dramatically with a new release.
Unless there are objections I will remove the dictionary module now, to
clear the way for a category-x free developer build (or whatever its
name should be).
For the 3.4 release we have to decide on and implement a replacement.
Best regards,
Andre
