Re: [Libreoffice-ux-advise] Java GUI for Libre-Office Based Android App(s)

This is my reply to a message that was accidentally not forwarded to this
list, so please read the quoted message as well.

2012/4/26 Tor Lillqvist <tml@iki.fi>

> > would the first version of the editing-capable
> > application contain only the modules that can edit files, or contain a
> mix
> > of editing-capable and view-only modules?
> > (I'd prefer the latter.)
>
> If you think so, sure, we could do that.
>
> > I've seen some shots of LibreOffice running under Android (with the
> desktop
> > UI and a colorful margin) -- was that the whole of LibreOffice running
> under
> > Android, or just a small portion of the code?
>
> It was most of LibreOffice, but (Michael, correct me if I am wrong)
> more or less a demonstration that something works, some technical
> approaches used by it are not suitable as a base for an actual app.
>
> > Also, how much code do the modules share? Will they share more code over
> time?
>
> Oh, they share a lots of code. Don't think the amount of shared code
> will increase much, they share what can be shared already.

It sounds like having a single application house the four main LibreOffice
modules might be more technically feasible than separating the modules. Or
at least if the user plans to use all four of the programs, it would save
him a lot of space if the modules were bundled together rather than
separated.

I don't know if you plan to ship Base and Math for tablets, too, but I'd
imagine it's not a top priority.

> > (I know Calligra Suite is very modular, LibreOffice apparently not so
> much.)
>
> LibreOffice is extremely modular... some might say even *too*
> modular;) (In the sense that it is split into a huge number of dynamic
> libraries, some of which form "sets" that will get loaded completely
> anyway.) But still people who don't know its internals often say "you
> should make it more modular";) I guesss the problem is that "modular"
> is a relatively vague term.

I know Calligra uses Flake to render its objects and object tools, and
apparently the UI is separated from the internals to ease crafting custom
UIs, such as Calligra Active [1] for touch devices.
Does LibreOffice do something similar?


> > In my view, the UI for each module doesn't need to be so different as to
> > require having a separate module for each.
>
> OK. I guess it is mostly a marketing question then, will some
> customers feel that they are wasting device space for functionality
> they don't use, etc, if all three "aspects" are present in one app?

Which three aspects? Writer, Impress, and Calc or Writer, Impress, and Draw?

Most of the office suites that come for Android bundle the aspects in one
application, which isn't an argument, but it shows that users are fine with
having an office suite that takes care of all their office files. Google
Docs and Gnome Documents also manage all office files.

I personally would prefer to have all the modules in a single application,
for several reasons:
a) It's easier to set up sync in a single application rather than for each
one I use (I'm a Google Docs user)
b) I manage my files in terms of projects, which tend to be composed of
more than one filetype.
c) I share certain folders with specific projects with others. If
LibreOffice was to get sharing functionality and there was one application
per module, I'd have to recreate the same folder structure in each module
and share links to all the folders relevant to the project instead of just
one.

> > I've done some brainstorming on how the current UI might be tweaked to
> get a
> > tablet UI
> > at http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Design/Whiteboards/Tablet_Writerand
> > http://clickortap.wordpress.com/frivl/.
>
> Will have a look at that, too, thanks.
>
> --tml

[1] http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2011/04/plasma-active-calligra-active.html