StarOffice Issues in the MIT/Athena Environment

[original frmo Richard Garcia, 18aug2000, gathered from a variety of sources, modified since by amb]

This document is now deprecated and not updated; see the new version of this list sorted by priority. This document became not current as of 18 September 2000 with updates to the prioritized list.

Group 1: Things we would like to see happen in order to harmonize StarOffice with the MIT Athena environment.

• 1. We want to give users preset configurations for any feature we want to set or disable. At present, the only way we can figure out for doing this is for the installer to configure the program, apply the desired settings, and turn his local configuration files into a "template" that is piped through sed to generate configuration files for other users when they launch StarOffice.

• 2. We don't want users to see registration requests, even if they are optional.
• 3. Users at MIT are given a fixed amount of network storage space. StarOffice as we currently have it set up leaves a footprint of about 2.8 MB, or over 5% of the user's quota, with about 2.4 MB of that space taken up by configuration files. It would be extremely desirable to reduce the size of the local configuration directory to an absolute minimum. (See Bill Cattey's email to Sarah Bate, 8/17.) We believe that some of the configuration files are read-only, but we have no way to be certain in each case.

• 4. Local configuration files should be fully platform-independent. Currently the same StarOffice version sets up separate local configuration directories for Sun and Linux. It looks like there are many file differences between them.

• 5. Local configuration directories should be at least upwardly compatible across StarOffice versions. It would be very nice if the local configuration directory for 5.1 could also work for 5.2, for example, perhaps with some additional files added to account for 5.2 enhancements.

• 6. The GUI design should be compatible with emerging desktops: Gnome, KDE, etc. (Perhaps the OpenOffice project handles this.)

• 7. We would like improved coupling to Java, particularly for Linux. It should be possible to use any sufficiently recent JDK or JRE release, not just certain "special" ones like Linux JDK 1.1.8. Alternatively, what is needed should be built into the installation archive so that users don't need to install a separate application.

• 8. It would be desirable to reduce the machine resources required; it shouldn't be necessary to have 256 MB of memory for performance to be acceptable.

• 9. It would be very helpful if StarOffice could automatically find the right driver for a given named printer, instead of having to configure each by hand. In an environment with dozens of printers of different types that change dynamically, this becomes unmanageable.

• 10. Installation instructions need considerable improvement. For the 5.2 release, instructions for converting the binary download to a form suitable for a network installation had to be found by searching through Internet newsgroups, for example.

• 1. We have a PowerPoint presentation that uses an "Uncover from left" effect on several slides. Its behavior is very erratic when converted to StarImpress. Sometimes the text moves onto the screen quickly; other times it is a very long while in coming, during which the presentation seems to have hung; and sometimes the movement of the text is extremely jerky.

• 2. In the File > Open/Save dialog boxes, typing a path name starting with /afs causes StarOffice to report that it has lost contact with other AFS cells, and the program must be explicitly killed. Also, while it is possible to go from an AFS to a different directory off the root (/var/local, for instance), it is not possible to go in the opposite direction.

• 3. A user reports that a StarWriter file created under StarOffice 5.1 for the Sun platform cannot be read by the Windows 5.2 version. (However, a Windows 5.2 text document can be read by Sun 5.1; and when saved under Sun 5.1, it can then be read by Windows 5.2.)

• 4. In an "equation-rich" environment like MIT, we could wish for better translation of equation objects between Star Office and Microsoft Office. The appearance is just fine; but an equation object created in one environment cannot be edited in the other.

• 1. We have had a long-standing but erratic (i.e., non-reproducible) problem in printing, whereby occasionally a document prints 256 times the number of copies requested. No specific unusual behavior on the part of the user has been identified in this connection.

• 2. During StarImpress presentations, version 5.1 crashed frequently, and also sometimes deleted files during the crashes. No consistent conditions have been associated with triggering the crash.

• 3. Problems have been reported in translation of special characters (bullets and the like) between Microsoft Office and StarOffice.