> On 05/16/2014 03:12 AM, mt wrote: > > To those who chimed in to justify styles: it is quite obvious to me > > that you are missing the point. For starters, it sounds like you don't > > really know WordPerfect, and imagine "Reveal codes" to be something > > other than it was.
In my case, what is "quite obvious" is wrong. I used WordPerfect for a number of years, including writing my thesis in it. I hated Reveal Codes, finding it clunky and time-consuming. > > But more basically, OpenOffice is for people like Julian and me. I've been a user of OpenOffice since the 1.0 release -- for over 12 years. Surely you aren't suggesting that it isn't for people like me just as much? > > If people like me and Julian put forward a suggestion, it should be the > > programmer's job to consider it from the user's perspective... or > > shouldn't it?? Yes and no. On the one hand, everyone wants the program to be useful. That's why bug-filing include suggestions for enhancement. I've got one or two I'd like to see realized myself. On the other hand, working on OpenOffice is not a job for all the developers, and, besides, there's a long tradition in free software of working on what interests you, even if you're getting paid. Furthermore, as in most free software projects, there is always far more to do than people to do it. Those involved have to decide what priority requests have, how complicated they are to implement, and how they complement the existing code. For instance, would any existing feature have to be re-written to be compatible with the proposed new one? In the case of a Reveal Codes feature, there has historically been a lack of interest in implementing it and some complications involved that, so far, no one has wanted to tackle. It's not a feature that someone is likely undertake because it can implemented in a couple of hours. So it's not just enough for one or two people to express a wish for a feature and then sit back and wait for the developers to fulfill their wishes. If you really want to see a Reveal Codes feature, you need to start a campaign, not just requesting it, but also developing use cases that explain why it is important, and learning enough to suggest possible approaches that can overcome the challenges of implementing it. You need to convince people that the feature should have priority.. That's how free software works, and, from what I have seen while reading mailing lists, OpenOffice is no exception. -- Bruce Byfield 604-421-7189 (on Pacific time) blog: https://brucebyfield.wordpress.com website: http://members.axion.net/~bbyfield/ ------------------------------------------- List Conduct Guidelines: http://openoffice.apache.org/list-conduct.html To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
