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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: Forward/backward compatibility
From:       Nicolas Goutte <nicog () snafu ! de>
Date:       2002-03-31 20:46:34
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On Sunday 31 March 2002 21:52, Thomas Zander wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 31, 2002 at 09:08:33PM +0200, Nicolas Goutte wrote:
> > On Sunday 31 March 2002 17:46, Werner Trobin wrote:
> > > Hi!
> >
> > (...)
> >
> > > I plan to break this compatibility even more, but I will provide
> > > scripts to convert these documents to 1.1.1 and 1.0 compatible ones. Is
> > > this enough, or do we want to have some user interface for that? If we
> > > want a UI, do we want a separate tool, or something in the apps or even
> > > the file dialog?
> >
> > The best would be a few export filters.
> >
> > However, we have again the problem that the "save" dialog/system works
> > with mime types and that you cannot have mime types with the same
> > extension.
> >
> > Why export filters? A user can use it simply at save.
>
> hmm; so the user must select if he wants to open it in koffice 1.1 or in
> 1.2? And how do you propose to do this in the old koffice?
>
> The only way to do this is in the import filters; and werner asked about
> how to do this. You kind of misunderstood it seems.

I am not sure who has not understood who. But that does not matter.

Werner wanted scripts to convert 1.2 files to 1.0 or 1.1.x ones. I wrote that 
it is not a good solution and proposed another one. (I am not telling that it 
is the best solution.) 

Choosing to save in an old format is common in word processors (even AbiWord 
has it for old RTF.) If you want to open a file in an old KOffice program, 
you save it in the old format. When you save in the old program, the new 
program should be able to read the old files (as it has always been the 
policy in KOffice.)

Having just scripts to re-order things might arise questions among users, as 
(I suppose that) they will tend not to understand why complex things like 
embedding do work but simplier things like cliparts do not.

If I remember well, when the subject of having zip files appeared the first 
time, we had already found out that doing something at load time in the old 
application would be quite difficult, especially as nobody would package 
anything new for old versions of KOffice.

We could always choose the old idea that there is not enough users that use 
KOffice to care. However, I suppose that it is the last version where we can 
tell that. So we better have to be careful and start thinking about the 
future before it is too late. Later versions will surely have similar 
problems.

I hope that I was able to describe more clearly my opinion this time.

Have a nice day/evening/night!

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