On Saturday 23 February 2002 06:53 pm, Bob Underwood wrote: [snip] > > > > | Is the Star Office 5.2 address book reliable enough for mail merges, or > > | has any other word processor (Applixware?) an address book that can be > > | used for mail merges? > > the subject of DOS style mail-merge capable wordprocessors in linux came up a while back. it turns out that the nearest thing to what you need would be wordperfect8, which, as well as being an x-capable application, also runs in a console--in which state, alllegedly, is as close to wp5.1 on DOS as can be replicated on a linux platform. whether run in a console or as an x-app, it does have mail merge capability built in. the problem is getting hold of it, since corel doesn't provide it for linux, anymore.
in the course of that thread discussion, someone in australia came up with the information that various vendors down there still sell it--although the thread tapered off on the subject of actually locating a vendor that had it available for sale. at that time, someone else, who had a gzipped version, offered an ftp connection for transfer to whomever was interested. unfortunately, i didn't take them up on that offer, but maybe this discussion will regenerate that connection. (at that time, i thought that i had an archived copy somewhere among the heap of zip disks laying here about, but, having undertaken the search, it turns out that i don't.) all that said, it is, indeed, one of the few failings of linux that this need--for a functional, reasonable overhead, and business efficient wordprocessor--has not yet been addressed. if i'm wrong about that, i welcome enlightenment. particularly, the subject of mail merge capability reliant on a database that the application itself can generate and control, seems almost to be in grevious antipathy with the core *nix notion that functionality should always be reduced, where possible, to the discreet employment of individually available processes working in concert to produce the desired effect. and, yet, given the quality of the *nix applications incorporated in any functional linux distibution, it does not seem unreasonable to wonder why we still don't have a composite application that would offer you the security of a viable transition to linux, keeping your mail merge needs in mind. again, if anybody can offer extra enlightenment, come on in. tex/latex solutions, however they satisfy the ambitions of their proponents, are not an equivalent solution. willing migrants from m$ hegemony deserve a better offer than to be forced to adjust themselves to a convoluted system of protocols that many of the hardiest advocates of linux find burdensome. i have tried, in my own mailings to corel, to convince them of the respect they would gain amongst even the most cynical of us all, and of the steet credibility that they could garner if they would release the source code of wp5.1 into the public domain. in all the responses they deigned to offer, no mention of the possibility of such a release was addressed. the best i ever received in response was the notice that corel continues to research the viability of serving the linux market. you have definitely touched on one of the most primary reasons why linux is not yet generally user approriate. while i--even if i were alone, as one user--have so many reasons to justify my resentment of gates's commercial hijacking of the x86 platform, the fact remains that we, those of us in the community of the true user--i.e., those who demand a right of choice--still lack the least of those full-fledged, world-user oriented applications comparable to such as wp5.1, as ancient a solution as that would be. where dos/word users have always tried to ridicule alt-f3 (the wp key invocation of the help system), i, as most likely so many others do, absolutely deplore m$word's prorietary .doc standard, that renders communication dependent on acquiesence to a rule that serves only the hegemonistic ambitions of a provenly suspect organization. while gates' credibility continually sinks like a rock in the deadest of all seas, particularly by virtue of his monopolistic ambitions, there are still issues that remain to be resolved, and that require resolution, on our side of the fence, and ASAP. i believe the most important of those to be ensuring actual interoperable functionality between the best aspects of those systems that exist by virtue of gates' hegemony and of those that exist by the choice, that either linux or freebsd have made available to everyone. unless we can prove to the disenchanted that we actually know the way to go and have the necessary equipment, then they, bill, et al, still stand to win the game. i guess what i mean is that we need that free-software-almost-solely-business -oriented application if linux is to really survive in the real real world, and that it's way high time to give up the pretence that even the non-business regular user can survive without it. staroffice was venerable just because it tried to fill (or even merely appropriate) that spot, and because it was free; but, as everyone who made the effort to sweat it to make staroffice be that solution nonetheless knows, it still sucks, and, because it sucks, the gap remains open, yet to be filled by the next greatest attempt to be the next killer linux app. personally, i don't see that gap as a niche to be filled by something or other in the future, but rather one that the past had already taken care of, just in the wrong form, on the wrong platform. in fact, from the perspective of the hegemonists, if the free software notion is to be subverted, that is the weak point upon which it's most likely to flounder. to those clamouring to top each other with statements about how tex/latex provide sufficient tools to bridge the gap, i can only try to bring their attention to the fact that win/mac refugees don't even want to know about that. the guts of the matter is that what linux is lacking, in order to successfully debrief the already previously hijacked, is a solid wysiwyg document processing application that incorporates the best features of those available on other platforms, but, then, to go one better by delivering the processed document in such form as can be imported by any other app on any other platform. nothing else really matters. back when wp8 was available, i don't remember coming across admonitions against decompiling or reverse engineering--though, i have to admit, i could be wrong on that. in the end, i think about linus' achievement in subverting at&t, et al, and working out a clone operating system so harmoniously interoperable that almost any unix manual is equally applicable to linux. given that success, and the fact that wp5.1 was the best product that ever appeared on that other operating system, particularly because of the fact that it restricted itself to accommodating a particular task--namely, document processing, in every form as then, and even now, as yet anticipated by human intelligence--i'm led to wonder why it is that we still lack a sufficient equivalent. this ain't just a whine. if anyone has such a project going on, let me know. whatever i can lend to its success, i will freely give. in the meantime, if anyone can throw up access to an archived copy of wp8, we can start from there. ben
