Re: [libreoffice-users] mail format

On 01/18/2014 01:29 PM, Robert Holtzman wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 18, 2014 at 01:15:26AM -0500, Doug wrote:
> > On 01/17/2014 09:25 PM, Peter West wrote:
> > > Hi Doug,
> > >
> > > I think the best solution to your problem is to buy a copy of Microsoft Office.
> > >
> > > Peter West
> > >
> > > So his fame spread throughout all Syria...
> > /snip/
> >
> > I do not like Microsoft Office. I think it is a PITA, and I have
> > thought so since I was using
> > WordStar!  But a standard is a standard, and whether you like it or
> > not, the old 1997
> > .doc format is that standard, as nearly as there is one.  LIve with it!
> The Model T Ford was a standard for a long time. Should people have just
> lived with that?
>
>           .........snip.........
No, the Model T was not a standard, but I think the position of the 
brake pedal was.
Since at least the Model A, the positions of the clutch, brake, 
accelerator, have become
standard, and the position of the gear-shift was a semi-standard--it's 
now back on
the floor, where it had been in model A days, after a few years on the 
steering
column. And, with the exception of reverse, the general layout of the 
gear positions
on the manual shifter is standard.
Since the Model A, which did not have directional signals, the position 
of the
directional signal control has become standard.
So it's not the car, but the implementation of it, just as it's not the 
computer, but
the implementation of the file operation--ctrl-U for underline, 
etc.--and the
file exchange formats which are more-or-less standard. Yes, there are a 
multitude
of standards, each applying to some type of program--.dwg for cad 
interchange,
.exe for Windows executables, .pdf for that type of file, and, like it 
or not, .doc
for word-processed files.  When or if  Microsoft adopts .odt or .rtf, as 
their normal
format or if by some miracle ?Office (Libre or Open) becomes the norm, 
then the
standard will change. But not until.

(As an editor of a small (~1000 circulation) newsletter,  it is 
important to me to
use standards which are available and in common use by those with Windows
PCs, Apple computers with either of two quite different operating systems,
and Linux--the latter probably only by me!)

--doug



--
Blessed are the peacemakers...for they shall be shot at from both sides. --A.M. Greeley


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