[timmerk]

I just found NeoOffice/J, which I like a lot. (link: http://www.neooffice.org/) I see they have a few different prototypes that demenstrate different ways of getting OpenOffice to work under OS X without the X11 window system.

NeoOffice/J uses the Java UI. Is only the UI in Java, or did they port all the code to Java?

Also, if it uses just the Java UI, could they make it use the Cocoa Java framework to display native Aqua UI?

Also, couldn't they just use OpenOffice, and redo the interface using the native Aqua UI to make it faster? This would seem like the best option to me.

I am very interested in this project - please tell more about it! Thanks!

[JKT]

Briefly, NO/J doesn't use Java for the GUI, it uses Java to allow OpenOffice.org to run without dependency on X11 and to use MacOS keybindings etc and that is pretty much it - the UI and functionality is essentially still all OOo. Some features of NO/J are able to use the MacOS X native dialogues (e.g. printing) owing to the use of the Java "backend" and the NeoOffice developers are attempting (quite successfully) to get NO/J to use the Mac menubar for NO/J's menus.

NeoOffice itself was the attempt to port OOo entirely to MacOS X and this project is currently stalled to all intents and purposes. The problem is that OOo 1.x is coded in such a way that it is extremely difficult to port as a *native* app to other platforms like MacOS X. The interface itself is hard coded into the application which makes it very, very hard to aqua-fy (this also affects the ability to do the same to NO/J). OOo 2.x which is in development at the moment was meant to make porting easier, but I don't know enough about it at the moment to comment further.

At present the majority of focus on getting a native MacOS X OOo is through the NO/J project, I believe. The best place to go for more info and to ask questions about NeoOffice/NeoOffice/J is the Trinity website which is where the NO developers "live".

[JKT]

P.S. The latest version of NO/J is version 1.1 alpha 2 which is based on OOo v.1.1.2 - this launches much faster than the prior version 0.8.4... which do you have?

[wataru]

There is also an Aqua menu patch available for NO/J alpha 2, which goes a long way toward making it feel more like a native app.

Also note that NeoOffice is NOT the same thing as NeoOffice/J, and OpenOffice is NOT the same thing as OpenOffice.org.

[timmerk]

Originally posted by wataru:
There is also an Aqua menu patch available for NO/J alpha 2, which goes a long way toward making it feel more like a native app.

Also note that NeoOffice is NOT the same thing as NeoOffice/J, and OpenOffice is NOT the same thing as OpenOffice.org.

Where do I find the Aqua menu patch?

Also, what is the difference between OpenOffice and OpenOffice.org? Isn't the .org one just the website of OpenOffice?

Thanks!

[wataru]

OpenOffice is a different product made by different people. Note how in the splash screen for OO.o, it says "OpenOffice.org" not just "OpenOffice."

Here is an article about the patch. Note that apparently the patch contains a pretty big bug--you can't print. Hopefully that will be fixed soon. (Edit: Actually, I don't have a printer so I can't confirm that bug. I successfully printed to a PDF file, though.)

[wataru]

Patch 4 has just been released for NeoOffice/J. This fixes the problems with printing, as well as several other bugs.