Re: Replacement for Abiword: LyX? Openoffice?

[adam <lists@monkeez.co.uk>]

On Sun, 5 Oct 2003 10:13:21 -0300
Ben Armstrong <synrg@sanctuary.nslug.ns.ca> wrote:

> Abiword has been removed from testing.  This keeps junior-writing out
> of sarge because of its dependency on abiword.  I will have to remove
> abiword from junior-writing, but I would like to replace it with
> another WYSIWYG word processor.
> 
> Should I replace abiword with LyX?  This will considerably increase
> the size of Debian Jr. because to be truly useful, I believe I also
> need to include tetex, which is massive.  Furthermore, there is the
> question of whether LyX is truly a word processor that children can
> use.
> 
> An alternative is to depend on openoffice, but then we'd have the same
> 
> "bloat" issue.
> 
> Are there users here whose children use either LyX or Openoffice?  Any
> 
> comments on usability of these packages with children?
> 

Sorry for lack of introduction, but I've been following this list for
about a week now and waited to see what the decision on this one was to
determine if it was a clearcut decision. However, after seeing the
length of the thread now, it seems it may not be a clearcut one. 

My take on replacing any software which fulfills a learning intention
would be that the candidates that act as a surrogate must fulfill two
things. 

Firstly, the software should attempt to meet the skills that would be
acquired from the previous software. In this case, I cannot see how Lyx
would be a good replacement for Abiword - it might be a good
alternative, but not replacement. 

Secondly, we need to think about progression - and I mean about what
applications would children be best of using before they come to other
applications. Some children might not best be introduced to Lyx without
using other editing software. It might be unfamiliar to them and might
assume some pre-requisite skills (I have to admit at this point that I
know very little about Lyx). If those skills aren't in place, then
another piece of software may help you on the road to using the more
trickier piece of software. In this case, I would say that a
wordprocessor would be an easier piece of software (when used in a basic
manner) than something like Lyx. 

Forgive me for any faux-pas that I might have made as a newcomer to the
list - I just thought I would want to share my thoughts. However, I
would easily accept that long-standing members of debian-jr have a
better informed opinion. 

thanks

adam