History of NeoOffice and OpenOffice.org: NeoOffice

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Revision as of 05:59, 24 October 2005

Introduction

History of OpenOffice.org and OpenOffice.org on Mac OS X

Neolithic Office (NeoOfficeÂ® and NeoOfficeÂ®/C)

Neolithic Office for Javaâ„¢ (NeoOfficeÂ®/J and NeoOfficeÂ®)

Timeline and Additional Resources

This overview and history consists of several pages. Click on the links in the box to the right to move to the previous or next section.

Neolithic Office for Javaâ„¢ (NeoOfficeÂ®/J)

In June of 2003, Patrick Luby, the lead developer on Sunâ€™s old Mac OS X port of StarOfficeâ„¢, introduced NeoOfficeÂ®/J, a second project under the NeoOffice umbrella. The immediate goal of NeoOffice/J was to remove the need for X11 when running OpenOffice.org. Leveraging Javaâ€™s status as a â€œfirst-class citizenâ€ for Mac OS X programming, NeoOffice/J features superior integration with Mac OS X. For instance, NeoOffice/J uses the native Mac OS X printing engine and dialogue boxes, native Mac OS X fonts, rendering and text-layout technologies, language and keyboard support (including support for East Asian and RTL/CTL languages and input methods), native copy-paste/clipboard support, double-click and drag-and-drop opening of files, support for Macintosh file aliases, and more. A large portion of the â€œnativeâ€ Mac code is Java, but C++, C, and Objective-C code also comprise the Mac-specific code in NeoOffice/J.

As NeoOffice/J had proved itself both stable and user-friendly with a growing following, it is considered by many of the Mac OOo developers as the best vehicle for further Mac OS X integration and the addition of a Mac â€œlook-and-feelâ€ to OpenOffice.org technology. Thus beginning with NeoOffice/J 1.1 Alpha 2 (September 2004; based on OpenOffice.org 1.1.2), Patrick Luby and Edward Peterlin embarked on a process of â€œAquaficationâ€ of NeoOffice/J. The first step was the replacement of X11/Windows-style in-window menus with a native Aqua menubar; buttons, scrollbars and other Aqua interface elements are expected to be added in the coming months.

Alpha 2 also added mouse scroll-wheel support, text drag-and-drop (within NeoOffice/J itself only), WordPerfect file import using the libwpd and WriterPerfect libraries (libwpd.sf.net), patches delivered via the Apple Installer, and patch update notification. NeoOffice/J 1.1 Beta (December 2004; based on OpenOffice.org 1.1.3) featured new Finder application and document icons, a new splash screen, and language packs providing localized user interfaces for 40 languages. NeoOffice/J 1.1 Release Candidate (March 2005; based on OpenOffice.org 1.1.4) featured many other improvements, including support for drag-and-drop between NeoOffice/J and other applications and additional Aquafication improvements.

NeoOffice/J 1.1, the first whole-number, non-developmental release of NeoOffice/J, continued the process of Aquafication and refining the application. Released on June 22, 2005, version 1.1 was also based on OpenOffice.org 1.1.4, the latest stable codebase at the time, and included support for Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" as well as Spotlight indexing via NeoLight. The "grey window" and "open document" hacks were finally banished as NeoOffice/J could finally remain open after the last window was closed. New "quickstart" items in the NeoOffice/J menu and the Dock menu allowed for creation and opening of documents when no other windows were present. Version 1.1 also began to use colors specified in the System Preferences for some parts of the user interface and improved support for Indic and Arabic script languages. The release of NeoOffice/J 1.1 was the culmination of the year-long development cycle and set the stage for exciting future developments.

Currently only two developers, Patrick Luby and Edward H. Peterlin, are working on NeoOffice/J. Reflecting the size and complexity of a project based on (and fully compatible with) OpenOffice.org, maintenance of NeoOffice/J has become nearly a full-time job, and Patrick and Ed have spent approximately 3000 hours and $4000 over the past two years maintaining and developing NeoOffice/J.