Re: Mono and GNOME. The long reply.

[Miguel de Icaza <miguel ximian com>]

> In terms of pure feature count OpenCalc is still ahead in that they
> have support for several power user features (pivot tables, change
> logs).  However, Gnumeric development is sprinting along.  For basic
> use Gnumeric is smaller, faster, and more stable.  I stand by my
> initial assessment that Gnumeric & GNOME provide a better platform
> for development.  We also do a very good job of inter-operability
> with MS-Office (tm).

Sure, Gnumeric is easier to develop for us, indeed, it seems like
Gnumeric fills a gap for a spreadsheet in the Works kind-of-space and it
is a great technology showcase and a great place to contribute to.  But
there should be a push to get the OpenOffice platform better publicized
and more wildly used as well.

I love Gnumeric Jody, I really do, but when there are way too many
features that people need if we are hoping to deploy in large
environments.  

One very big feature of OpenOffice is the fact that you get the whole
combo, and the whole combo right now is integrated.  Right now our
AbiWord, and Gnumeric are far from having the kind of integration that
OpenOffice has.

I am not going to force anyone to do anything (last time I tried to
force people, Slashdot discovered it, impeached me and demanded my
resignation from whatever it was ;-), but maybe the OpenOffice code base
is a better starting point to have a full office suite. 

> With luck, cross pollination between the projects will lift all
> boats.  However, I think effort is better spent on extensions for
> applications like Gnumeric which will be useful to OpenOffice as
> they adopt GNOME technology.

I agree that we should have more cross polination between these
projects.  Someone should also seriously look at having OpenOffice use
Gtk+ or at least use the gtk_draw api to get some theme similarity. 

Best wishes,
Miguel.