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Community: JavaDesktop Archives

NeoOffice/J takes another stride

Patrick Luby let me know that he's released v0.8 of NeoOffice/J, the Java-front-ended version of OpenOffice.org for Mac OS X. And that he's added Clipboard support! WoooHoo! Way to go Patrick! It's getting sooo close.

[Also posted to Webmink]

JDS & LookingGlass Webcast Coming

I hear from my friend Neal that the webcast next Tuesday showing Java Desktop System should be good. Apparently Jonathan Schwartz and Peder Ulander will be showing several demos of JDS in action and also demoing the Looking Glass 3D desktop prototype (which Hideya continues to enhance - he's added a panning virtual desktop now as well and is exploring using the reverse of windows to display dialogs).

There's also a Q&A panel live - hope there will be some tough questions for them, I know they are on-the-hook to answer everything that gets asked ;-) I also notice that everyone who (virtually) shows up gets a JDS eval and a copy of StarOffice 7. Amazing how functional these 'virtual seminars' are getting.

[Also posted to Webmink]

Big speed step in NeoOffice/J 0.7.1

My friend Max has a new 17" Powerbook so we spent the afternoon gathering the extra software he wanted to get up to fully productive speed. Among the downloads was NeoOffice/J v0.7.1, Patrick Luby's latest release of his Java-front-ended OpenOffice.org. The new version loads and runs way faster than the previous one and I'd really recommend it to Mac users as its compatibility with MS Office is way better than AppleWorks.

One particularly interesting aspect is that Patrick has been able to significantly improve Java2D drawing performance (200% to 300% in some cases) so that NeoOffice/J is nearly as fast as its X11-based OpenOffice.org 1.0.3 counterpart. NeoOffice/J is all-round excellent - great functionality in a responsive package, and a great demonstration of both the power of the Java environment and the quality of the Java implementation on Mac OS X.

[Also posted to WebMink]

NeoOffice/J 0.7 Released

Posted by webmink on October 13, 2003 at 02:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

While we're celebrating the third birthday of OpenOffice.org, I'd like to pass huge congratulations to Patrick Luby on the release of v0.7 of NeoOffice/J for Mac OS X. He has single-handedly written a highly usable front-end for the Mac OS X port of OpenOffice.org 1.0.3 (itself an enormous achievement - credit especially to Ed Peterlin and Dan Williams) so that it doesn't require X11 to use. This new release makes it almost feature-complete, and it will make a lot of Mac users very happy.

Patrick has avoided needing either X11 or extensive Aqua programming by using core Java technology and leveraging its existing integration into Aqua. As a porting strategy I think that's pretty smart. This release adds printing, which for me was the missing link. There's still plenty of work to be done, but it's very cool.

This program is a case-study in the power of the open source method. With neither Sun nor Apple in a position business-wise to work on a Mac version of OpenOffice.org, the fact that all the source code was freely usable allowed capable and committed developers to 'do their own thing' and meet a community need. Traditional approaches to software would have left the idea to wither - this approach, through the energy of a few software engineers, lets many flowers bloom.

[Also posted to Webmink]

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