188 lines
9.7 KiB
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188 lines
9.7 KiB
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<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2//EN">
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<HTML>
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<HEAD>
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<title>A New Word-Processor for Linux</title>
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<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
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<H4>
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"Linux Gazette...<I>making Linux just a little more fun!</I>"
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</H4>
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<P> <HR> <P>
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<center><h1>The Maxwell Word-Processor</h1></center>
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<center>
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<h4>By <a href="mailto: layers@marktwain.net">Larry Ayers</a></h4>
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</center>
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<hr>
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<p>An interesting announcement was posted in late February to the
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comp.os.linux.announce newsgroup concerning the free availability of a new
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word-processor for Linux. It seems that the Maxwell word-processor had been
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developed by a British software company, Tangent Data Limited, with the
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intention of selling it as a commercial product, but for some reason the
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project was scrapped and the company was wound up. The three programmers
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involved (two of whom were partners in the firm) decided to release on the web
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a statically-linked Motif binary package.
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<p>I didn't really need a word-processor, but curiosity got the better of me,
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especially since it was just a one-and-one-half megabyte download. It wasn't
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hard to install (just unpack into /usr/local) but when I started it from an
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rxvt window, many seconds went by, with no disk activity. Evidently the
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license daemon is still automatically summoned, but since there isn't any
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licensing to do it gets confused and hangs for a while before reluctantly
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allowing the program to start. Finally a small control window appeared with a
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button on it inviting me to "open a document window"; I tried, and the window
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would appear for a fraction of a second before dying of terminal segmentation
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fault. Oh, well...off to /dev/null with that one, but before consigning the
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directory to oblivion, I noted the e-mail address to which comments and
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bug-reports should be directed, and pasted the error-messages into an e-mail
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message. Within a couple of hours I had a reply from Tom Newton, one of the
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developers, in which he stated that they had received other, similar reports
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from users with 16 bpp displays (which is what I use). That evening I
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received another message, this one bcc-ed to what must have been quite a few
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other Linux users who had written. It seems that so many people had tried to
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download the Maxwell archive that the ISP was swamped, and requested that the
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file be moved elsewhere. Before uploading it to Sunsite's incoming directory,
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the developers fixed the 16-bpp bug. The message also hinted that the
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application might end up GPL-ed, with full source available.
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<p>So I tried it again, and this time it would successfully start up. The
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document window is a typical Motif word-processor interface, with the usual
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menu- and button- bars. Here's a screenshot:<br>
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<p>
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<center>
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<img alt="Maxwell Document Window" src="./gx/ayers/max1.gif">
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</center>
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<hr>
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<center><h3>Features and Limitations</h3></center>
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<p>I use mostly free software, and one annoying trait I've noticed in many
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commercial applications for Linux is the neglect of perfectly serviceable
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utilities which are found on just about any Linux system. As an example, the
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ispell program is an efficient and dependable spell-checker, easily
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incorporated into other programs. Nonetheless many word-processors include
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their own spell-checking dictionaries and routines, one reason for their bulk.
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<p>Looking over the Maxwell files, I was interested to see that in the binary
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directory there are only two real files, the main executable and the license
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manager. The remainder of the files are symbolic links to <em>file</em>,
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<em>grep</em>, <em>ghostscript</em>, <em>lpr</em>, and <em>ispell</em>.
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Evidently the developers are familiar with Linux and saw no reason to
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re-invent several wheels. I imagine the savings in work was a factor as well.
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<p>The fonts are also represented by symlinks to a few of the fonts in the
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/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/type1 directory, with each one accompanied by an .mfm
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file, which stands for Maxwell Font Metrics. These files are automatically
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generated by Maxwell when it starts up and finds new fonts or symlinks
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installed. Adding new fonts isn't difficult (thanks to Tom Newton for this
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information!); just symlink them from your usual font directory (often
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<kbd>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts</kbd>) to
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<kbd>/usr/local/maxwell/fonts/Type1</kbd> and add entries to the
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<i>fonts.scale</i> and <i>fonts.dir</i> files in the same directory (these are
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installed as symlinks, but don't have to be).
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<p>Symlinks may have to be altered in order to enable the spellchecker. A
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subdirectory, <kbd>/usr/local/maxwell/dict</kbd>, should be created if it
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doesn't already exist, and the various <kbd>*.hash</kbd> files which <b>ispell
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</b> uses should be symlinked there; these are often found in
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<kbd>/usr/lib/ispell</kbd>. When this is correctly done a typical spell-check
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window can be summoned.
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<p>Maxwell saves files in its own binary format which is translated into
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Postscript before being sent to the printer. I don't have a printer which
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understands Postscript, but any print-filter which will call ghostscript with
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the necessary switches should work; it does for me. A disadvantage to this
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approach is that print quality will be dependent upon how well ghostscript
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supports your printer. Rich Text Format (RTF) is also supported and these
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files can be successfully loaded by WordPerfect. There seems to be quite a
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clamor in the Linux newsgroups for a word-processor which can load and save
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MS-Word format files, but Maxwell lacks this feature. The MS word-processors
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do support RTF, so there is some potential for file interchange between MS
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apps and Maxwell.
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<p>At first I thought Maxwell used its own font-rendering routines rather than
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the native X services, as scalable fonts are displayed on the screen free of
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the jagginess X applications usually suffer from when non-bitmap fonts are
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rendered. The rendering is better than this, but not quite as anti-aliased as
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the Gimp's or Ghostscript's output. Tom Newton (in an e-mail message) stated
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that Maxwell uses native X calls but small chunks of text are rendered
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separately before the position of the next chunk is calculated.
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<p>This is a worthwhile and notable feature; it has no effect on print quality
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but makes for more readable text on-screen when using different font sizes.
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<p>Some of the features, such as the table-creation facility and graphics
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inclusion, need more work. Attempting to include a graphics file in a
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document will cause Maxwell to crash if it is running on a 16 bpp
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display. Tables can be included, but though the fields dynamically resize
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themselves I didn't find any way to add padding or borders around fields.
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<p>Basic page and character layout is handled much as in other
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word-processors, with dialog-windows as well as menus and button-bars. In
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short, most standard word-processor functions work well, something
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which can't be said for the various free word-processor projects I've tried,
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many of which have been seemingly abandoned. All but LyX, that is, but LyX is
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<i>sui generis</i>.
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<center><h3>Conclusion</h3></center>
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<p>There has been a remarkable lack of public comment from the Linux community
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concerning Maxwell, considering how often the plea for a free word-processor
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is reiterated. I suspect that many people downloaded it, found that it
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wouldn't (in the initial version) run on a 16 bpp display, and discarded it.
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As I stated above, this has been remedied, and the current version is well
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worth a try. If the source was released under the GPL I'm sure interest would
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pick up and further enhancements would begin to appear.
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<p>After much of this article was written a third release (version
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0.5.2) was uploaded to
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<a href="ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/Linux/Incoming">Sunsite</a>. A few bugs
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have been fixed, and the annoying and time-consuming license manager has been
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removed, so the start-up is much quicker. According to Tom Newton, who has
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been putting together these releases, this will be the final binary version;
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if the source isn't released Maxwell will probably fade into obscurity.
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<p>So what will Maxwell's eventual fate be? The two former partners in
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Tangent Data own the rights and haven't decided what to do with it. A
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possibility of GPL status has been mentioned which would be interesting and
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useful to us all. One possibility would be to release source for the current
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build and then sell plug-ins or modules which would add features such as
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additional file-exchange filters. Support could be a fee-based service as
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well. This approach is being developed for the Gimp by the new WilberWorks
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company.
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<p>Even if the source isn't made available Maxwell is usable in its current
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state for basic word-processing, helping fill the gulf which currently exists
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between text editors and the large and feature-laden applications such as
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StarOffice, Applix, and WordPerfect.
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<!--===================================================================-->
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<P> <hr> <P>
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<center><H5>Copyright © 1998, Larry Ayers <BR>
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Published in Issue 27 of <i>Linux Gazette</i>, April 1998</H5></center>
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