on Words

[Pierre Stirnweiss]

On Fri, Oct 7, 2011 at 1:39 PM, C. Boemann <cbo at boemann.dk> wrote:

> Hi fellow Words developers
>
> The sprint is nearing and I think it's time to start thinking about what we
> should do. The following is up for discussion at the sprint but I'd like to
> get a head start:
>
> Mission statement
> ------------------------
>

Ahhh, C.Boemann, you definitely know how to speak to the former Quality
Assurance Manager in me!!!!!!


> Inspired by Krita we should come up with a mission statement. Here is a
> suggestion:
>
> "Calligra Words is an all purpose word processor useful for writing such
> diverse documents as for example: A simple letter, a university
> dissertation,
> a rule book, school reports and much more.
>
> We will not provide very specialized features if they clutter the user
> interface, but on the other hand should try to be flexible enough that
> people
> can create their own plugins.
>
> As examples we find changetracking a core feature, but a function that
> generates custom documents based on external input is not"
>

I agree with the general scope given. I am not sure we need to give so much
specifics in a mission statement (practical examples do not fit to a mission
statement IMHO).
We ought to make a small session during the sprint about the subject, and
the one below (which is linked). I'll like it, it'll remind me of my former
life ;)
I can take on responsibility for animating this session too if you want.


>
> Road map
> ------------
> With such a broad mission statement we need to limit ourselves initially.
> Not
> to the point of excluding contributions, but in defining what we, the core
> developers, will focus on.
>
> I suggest that we will target the university student. Meaning we should be
> able to view MS Word documents and be able to create from scratch reports
> and
> dissertations.
>
> The viewer part is not strictly needed but if a user is not able to view
> documents the user will choose another tool for viewing, and thus choosing
> Words for creating documents becomes very unlikely.
>
> For the creation part we need to support creation and editing of tables,
> change tracking, foot notes, endnotes, bibliography, basic page setup,
> images,
> and style management.
>
> We are already pretty far along this road (it's been an unspoken roadmap
> for
> quite a while) I suggest that we just keep on pushing for these features to
> mature and stabalize.
>
> In 8 months we ought to be really strong with these kinds of tasks.
>
> User interface
> ------------------
> At the usability sprint in Berlin two weeks after the first Calligra sprint
> (also in Berlin) Celeste lead a small design process for the overall user
> interface for Words. As with all usability designs it has to undergo
> iterative
> finetuning and experimentation, but I quite like it already.
>
> I've implemented the idea but we need to carry on from there and continue
> improving the user interface.
>
> http://wstaw.org/m/2011/10/04/wordsui.png
>

That is definitely something we need to plan at the sprint. I have made
quite some progress on the style widget (although i have had some IRL
constraints which pulled me a bit away as of late).


>
> kotext, textlayout, textshape, words division of responsibilities
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> We should come up with a plan for how we want the code structured in the
> long
> run. We've come a long way already, but we should discuss what further
> things
> we can do.
>

As far as I know there is already a session planned that I'll animate on
this very topic.


>
> KoTextEditor hacking
> ---------------------------
> I'd like a hacking session where we start extending the functionality of
> KoTextEditor.
>

This is sort of influenced by the topic above.


>
> Changetracking
> --------------------
> I'd like a brainstorm on how we proceed on change tracking. The current
> state
> leaves much to be desired.
>

For this, i think there are some external constraints that we do not control
entirely. There are some stuff needed internally though that we need to
discuss (like the "post-it notes"/"notes bubbles" stuff).

PierreSt
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/calligra-devel/attachments/20111007/5966bc11/attachment.htm>