AbiWord 2.2 for Mac OS X

[Clinton MacDonald]

Friends:

Clinton MacDonald wrote:
> The word processor AbiWord is now available for Mac OS X in version 2.2:
> 
> <http://www.abisource.com/release-notes/2.2.1.phtml>
> <http://www.abisource.com/download/>
> <http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/04/1755214&from=rss>
> 
> Give this open source alternative to Microsoft Word a try. Here are some 
> of my thoughts:
> [snipped]

As an addendum to my own post, I noticed one more niggle in quitting 
AbiWord: AbiWord uses the the "No, Yes, Cancel" dialog box convention of 
Windows/Linux, rather than the (IMHO, more sensible) "Save, Don't Save, 
Cancel" convention of the Macintosh user interface guidelines. In my 
book, this is another mark in the "minus" column for AbiWord.

(Why am I so negative on such an inconsequential point? Because, this is 
not really an inconsequential point: in dialog boxes, Microsoft Windows 
(and, too often, Linux) has it wrong, and the Mac OS has it right. In a 
potentially destructive dialog box, the user should not have to read -- 
and probably re-read twice -- the instructions before clicking a button. 
If the buttons are named for the verb actions ("Save," "Don't Save"), 
the user knows instantly what will be the consequences of her action. If 
the buttons instead answer a potentially ambiguous question, then the 
user is never quite certain (does "Yes" mean "Yes, I want to save," or 
"Yes, I want to quit... without saving; what did that dialog box say, 
again?").

(For the record, Microsoft Word X for the Mac gets it *right*, though I 
recall that previous versions (e.g., the execrable Word 6) got it 
completely wrong, and even moved the buttons to unaccustomed positions.)

We now return to our regularly scheduled flame war about Top Posting, 
already in progress.

Best wishes,
Clint

-- 
Dr. Clinton C. MacDonald | <mailto:clint DOT macdonald AT sbcglobal DOT net>