odf-mode.el -- Open Document Format for GNUemacs

["T. V. Raman" <raman@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

P.S. I pulled the odf-mode.el  file.

One immediate suggestion:

Have a simple Hello World document alongside it that one can open
and play with as one develops the mode; there is nothing like
instant gratification to encourage incremental development.

If you already use Open Office this might be the last thing you
think of, since you probably have such documents lying around;
for others who look at odf-mode because it is there, having a toy
document that is "safe" to play with, mess up and grab again from
the network would be a good thing to have.

>>>>> "tvr" == T V Raman <raman@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
    tvr> I agree with you that speech-enabling odf-mode inside
    tvr> Emacs will be far far faster than coaxing screenreaders
    tvr> to work well with vanila Open Office Apps.
    tvr> 
    tvr> That said, I would not advocate implementing odf-mode
    tvr> purely for emacspeak users --- or even specifically just
    tvr> for blind users; the number of blind users using Emacs
    tvr> is vanishingly small compared to the size of the overall
    tvr> Emacs user base, and what's more, the proportion of
    tvr> Emacs savvy developpers who cannot see is even smaller.
    tvr> 
    tvr> All that said, I believe the ability to easily
    tvr> manipulate odf files from Emacs if viewed as a
    tvr> mainstream tool to allow Emacs users to interoperate
    tvr> with colleagues using Open Office and its derivatives is
    tvr> both inevitable, and also likely to be successful when
    tvr> it is created.
    tvr> 
    tvr> You could do this either by leveraging something like
    tvr> nxml-mode along with Open Office's export to XML
    tvr> capability; though I suspect this might be suboptimal
    tvr> given that ODF probably has way too much detail in the
    tvr> markup.
    tvr> 
    tvr> Another avenue to pursue might be to allow export/import
    tvr> to things that are convenient to author in Emacs e.g.
    tvr> (a sample list follows)
    tvr> 
    tvr> A) Outline Mode and its derivatives e.g. org-mode B)
    tvr> NXML mode fronting a simpler DTD than ODF C)
    tvr> Export/Import from/to a subset of LaTeX D) Export/Import
    tvr> from /to basic XHTML (and I mean XHTML, not html tag
    tvr> soup which would be unmaintainable at both the exporting
    tvr> and importing ends)
    tvr> 
    tvr> 
    tvr> --Raman
    tvr> 
    >>>>>> "jcgs" == John Sturdy <john.sturdy@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
    jcgs> I've started to write a major mode for handling Open
    jcgs> Document Format files, particularly in the hope that it
    jcgs> will be useful with Emacspeak.  Before I get deeply
    jcgs> into it, I'd like to hear how much interest there is
    jcgs> likely to be in this.
    jcgs> 
    jcgs> You can get a very rudimentary version from
    jcgs> http://www.cb1.com/~john/computing/emacs/lisp/editing/odf-mode.el
    jcgs> 
    jcgs> Adding ODF to a speaking system may be a faster route
    jcgs> to getting accessibility started than adding speech to
    jcgs> an ODF system!
    jcgs> 
    jcgs> __John
    jcgs> 
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    tvr> 
    tvr> -- Best Regards, --raman
    tvr> 
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-- 
Best Regards,
--raman

      
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