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Re: How Microsoft Sabotages Linux Adoption

Roy wrote:
>__/ [Bruce Scott TOK] on Friday 10 February 2006 12:28 \__

>> Not only that, but also the demand of public service agencies (be they
>> government departments, or some research agency you submit proposals to)
>> that transmissions be electronic and in word format.  Even when
>> web-based thingies would be easier (filling out forms and the like).

>Many bodies are actually drifting /towards/ Web-based interfaces. They
>realise it entails many, many advantages over WYSIWYG of PDF, which can be
>automatically-generated from the raw product (may it be a Web form of TeX).

Also, they don't have to assume what software the proposer has access
to.  If well enough done (the Portuguese scientific foundation gets high
marks here) it will even work in Lynx.  But even DOE does a reasonably
good web interface.

>I have noticed that the IEEE and many other engineering-related bodies
>provide Word templates for paper submission nowadays. They have not forsaken
>LaTeX, of course, whose output looks far more professional and compilation
>process is more sophisticated (thereby it saves the author plenty of time).
>As regards submission in Word format, thank goodness for AbiWord, KOffice,
>OpenOffice, and StarOffice. Much of that ignorance in the non-IT world is no
>longer a peril.

Nothing is worse than a Japanese paper submitted in Word.  Apparently
they use some very non-compatible extensions over there.  In many cases
the PDF won't print at all or it prints unreadably.  In that one case I
had to have the journal print it out onto hardcopy from their version of
Word and fax it to me for review!

I'll believe all this brave European stance starting from the day I am
no longer asked to submit official Euratom forms in Word format (I have
to do this through our secretaries nowadays...).

-- 
ciao,
Bruce

drift wave turbulence:  http://www.rzg.mpg.de/~bds/


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