[Gllug] Microsoft was distributing Ubuntu

[Richard Jones]

On Sun, Jul 01, 2007 at 01:50:37PM +0100, John G Walker wrote:
> On Sun, 1 Jul 2007 13:17:33 +0100 Richard Jones <rich at annexia.org>
> wrote:
> > (1) In the way that people typically use it (emailing "stacks" back
> > and forth) you end up with loads of different versions with no
> > versioning and no way to tell which is the latest version.  This is a
> > general problem with Office docs.
> 
> User problem: If you're going to collectibvely prepare a presentation,
> you next to establish a framework for how you pass things back and
> forth. True of any medium you use.

This is something that the software could 'just do' for you.  Ordinary
punters aren't too interested in "establish[ing] a framework" for
collaborating.

> > (2) Large files containing very small amounts of text.
> 
> Why is this a problem?

It's another reason why such files can't be easily stored in version
control.  Powerpoint isn't the worst offender here by any means - try
using Apple Keynote and save as PPT.  The files come out as > 10 MB.

> > (3) Slide format can't contain enough text.  Using multiple slides
> > means that people have to remember the contents of slides across
> > slides.
> 
> User problem: If you're putting large amounts of text onto a slide,
> then you're doing it wrong, whatever means you use to prepare the
> slide.

Well, the tool encourages a certain way to think and present.  Better
tools, presumably, would encourage better ways to present.

> > (5) Hitting keys accidentally causes things to move around - you
> > quickly get to the point where you're lining stuff up manually.
> 
> Huh?

Yes, seriously.  Hit an arrow key and depending on what "mode" it's in
it'll start to shift stuff around.  This is behaviour I've observed in
novice PP users.  Actually, I've done it myself.

> > (6) Doesn't work well when the screen size or aspect ratio changes, or
> > when there's a missing font.  You often get parts of the slides
> > disappearing off the bottom of the screen.
> 
> User problem: People need to take care when designing an overhead slide.

Huh?  This is so absolutely definitely a tool problem.  The
programmers should have thought of this!

> > (7) Docs don't store well in traditional version control systems,
> > because they're binary.
> 
> And an acetate produced with a felt-tip pen scores how, in this respect?

Not very well.

A text file or DocBook/XML document on the other hand interacts
perfectly well with version control.

> > (8) Impossible [Office] or very hard [OpenOffice] to process or
> > generate the files automatically.  And yes, I have generated OO.org
> > files from programs, and was deeply unimpressed with the format
> > (although I'm sure OOXML is worse).  IMHO they should have used
> > DocBook/XML, which is a far better format only let down by the tools
> > used to process it.
> 
> User problem: You shouldn't be trying to produce overhaeds
> automatically. You should prodcue them to enhance what you have to say.

No, tool problem.

There are relatively few tools for handling office documents around,
and most of those handle very specific, niche areas -- for example
l18n or narrow data integration tasks.  And is it any wonder?  To get
access to proper documentation on the formats you have to hand over
your first born to Microsoft, and accept that if your area of the
market starts to look lucrative they'll produce a competing tool and
cut off your air supply.  (Or buy you out, if you're lucky - but
remember during the price negotiations that you have hardly any
leverage against them).

On the other hand there are millions of tools for generating and
processing HTML, which by coincidence is a properly open format.

It's perfectly reasonable to generate parts or perhaps even whole
presentations.  Suppose you had to give a presentation to your board
of directors every month.  You'd want to pull in all sorts of facts
and figures from your other business tools, and it's easy to imagine
automating parts of this.  (You can do this, but there is hardly a
rich competitive market in tools - see above).

> > (9) Can't view the structure so you often get the situation where
> > boxes are on top of each other, with lower ones "disappearing"
> > (actually obscured / invisible).
> 
> Use problem: you need to take care when designing an overhead. Plus,
> this seems to me to emphasise what I've said elsewhere: the main problem
> is that PowerPoint allows the user to do stupid things easily. In this
> case, it seems like you're trying to produce a far-too complicated
> slide, that'll distract the audience from listening to what you have to
> say.

No it's a tool problem if it lets the user hang themselves like this.
99% of PP users do title - bullets - title - bullets - ...  So there's
no reason at all for them to move or overlay things.

> > (10) Frustrating, imprecise diagram tools.
> 
> User problem: Paste the picture you would otherwise photocopy onto an
> acetate. Big difference is that you can do more with a computer image
> than you can with a photocopy.

Usability problems are tool problems.

> > (11) How do you apply a uniform style to all slides?  (I'm sure that
> > PP experts will tell me how to do this, but I never worked it out).
> 
> User problem: RTFM. (You knew that anyway, didn't you?)
> 
> These are only software problems in the sense that you always get a
> problem if you try to use software as a[...]

[Somewhat proving what I was going to say, I accidentally held down
the delete key in emacs and then couldn't undo my actions, so sorry
that I deleted part of your sentence there ...]

I happen to think that software can both make tasks easier and
encourage certain styles of thinking.  This should be obvious: try
collaboratively writing an encyclopedia using Excel, or forecasting
annual sales using Mediawiki.

This is not the same as saying that tools can remove the need to
think, or to understand a problem.  It's also not clear that we
understand how to make presentation tools better either.  I would
start with the display screen hardware: you need to have two or three
screens so that you can either show the two previous slides, or show
accompanying information, and you need to be able to write on slides
with some sort of wand tool.  It's a rich area for research anyway.

Rich.

-- 
Richard Jones
Red Hat
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