KDE version of OpenOffice?

[Piotr Gawrysiak]

Dear all,

I hope that this post is not too off topic and that it is not too naïve
etc. - if it is, please excuse my stupidity :-)

Have anyone considered doing something that could be called "KDE port" of
OpenOffice? Of course it is possible now to run OpenOffice alongside with
KDE but it is not well (or at all) integrated with the rest of the
environment - it has its own graphical widgets, own font handling, own -
well pretty everything (see note 1). So it looks a bit out of place on KDE
desktop. And also behaves a bit strange - what is probably most annoying is
that more sophisticated copy/paste/embed operations are of course not
possible. And it would be so natural to be able to take, say, KFormula and
embed in OpenOffice document :-( (see note 2)

I do not know how much effort would be needed and if it would doable at all
but - what about taking OpenOffice code and porting it to Qt/KDE? So that
the resulting application would be compatible with other OpenOffice
versions, for example Win32 (see note 3), but would use KDE libraries,
integrate with the environment (toolbars, file open dialogs, printing
system, KParts - for example embedding KSpread in OOo Writer etc. etc.).
Maybe this could also make it a bit faster and smaller.

I am not sure about this - but wouldn't it be a bit similar to that what
OpenOffice Mac port is finally going to be? Currently it looks (i.e. the
interface) just as other ports but I think that there are plans to make it
to Aqua. Or am I wrong?

Of course there is KOffice. But in its current state (especially considering
lack of developers and - what is probably much more important and what might
be the reason for it - lack of marketing and media attention) it somehow
does not seem promising (see note 4) :( Even outside of Linux community
(well, not that I do not use Linux, but I am still rather Windows-only
specialist :( it seems that it is possible (still only just possible, but it
is something) that OpenOffice might be a real competitor to Microsoft Office
and even replace it in some quite distant future.

That does not mean however that this imaginary KDE OpenOffice version and
Koffice could not coexist, or even benefit one from each other.

What do you think? Does it all make sense or am I only dreaming? Is it
worthwhile to start thinking about such project (gathering support,
developers, and maybe - even funds) or is it just stupid?

Piotr Gawrysiak

note 1 - I think one of the Koffice developers was investigating Ooo source
code trying to assess if the import/export functions could be reused in
Koffice and had some remarks on this topic?

note 2 - Win32 version of OpenOffice integrates much better with Windows
environment. For example OLE embedding is possible, so one can take say -
Microsoft Equation object and embed it in OpenOffice writer document - it is
not perfect, but more or less works.

note 3 - by compatibility I understand document file compatibility, general
properties of the user interface, and also - what seems to be very
important - the possibility of incorporating future OpenOffice source code
improvements/changes into this KDE version of OpenOffice.

note 4 - which is a shame, because KOffice has lots of potential. However -
this is just as with KDE vs GNOME wars - does Open Source community have
enough resources to push two similar projects at the same time now? One
example - I think that Lycoris now has the "Office" component - which is
somewhat modified OpenOffice and not KOffice. And this is KDE only system...


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