Hello;

In Writer (and elsewhere), what harm would be caused by adding the ability to specify dimensions to an accuracy of three (or more) decimal places instead of just two decimal places? I make the following observations:

1. There is already plenty of room in each little entry window for the additional decimal places. Look at all of these dimension entry windows:

    Tools/Options/General

    Paragraph/Indents & Spacing (Including Fixed line spacing)
    Paragraph/Tabs
    Paragraph/Drop Caps
    Paragraph/Borders

    Page Style/Margins
    Page Style/Headers
    Page Style/Footers
    Page Style/Borders
    Page Style/Footnotes

    Bullets & Numbering/Position
    Bullets & Numbering/Options

    Edit Paragraph Style/Indents & Spacing
    Edit Paragraph Style/Drop Caps
    Edit Paragraph Style/Borders


2. Regarding "code bloat", the size of the code would probably remain UNCHANGED, since the number of decimal places would probably be determined by a formatting variable. Change "Decimal_places = 2" to "Decimal_places = 3" or "Decimal_places = 4" and the code is the same size.

3. The user is not forced to use the extra digits, so no harm is done to those who are frightened or offended by the extra digits. The formatting of the decimal display could probably be structured so that the extra decimal places are not even shown unless the user enters a 3 or 4-decimal place value.

4. The changes in the code would probably take very little time to make for the person who is in charge of working on this area of code.

5. It would give OO much greater accuracy for those who need it, without any penalty for those who don't need it.

But apparently, there has been a policy that OO will NEVER have such abilities. From Jonathon:

"More that historically, the gatekeepers have point blank refused to even consider enhancement requests that could even remotely construed as providing any desktop publisher capability to OOo."

What could the reason possibly be for refusing to make OO more capable, with no increase in code size, very little time required to make the changes, and no inconvenience to users who don't need the added capability?

Is there some political issue simmering below the surface? Fear of a lawsuit from a desktop publishing software company? Someone has a big investment in a DTP software company? A secret effort to force the world to use millimeters and/or points instead of inches? Some form of resentment and punishment for those who do not use millimeters?

Were the developers born and raised in the metric world, and have no clue about the existence of Inches where two decimal places can be limiting? Are their own document requirements so primitive that they don't realize the need for greater precision that some users have?

Something is wrong here. We should all be striving for EXCELLENCE, yet the gatekeepers and some of the users seem to be demanding MEDIOCRITY.

Thank you.

John Hardy


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