SEUL: Re: DRAFT: End-User Application Comparisons

[Robert Hopcroft <hopcroft@uswest.net>]

This is a great idea. Pete, I don't know how you planned to proceed but for my
own use, I took your list, added what's been mentioned, started adding my own
ideas, and broke the list into categories so I could get a better feel as to
what is there and what is missing. Over the next few days I will try to fill
out all the applications I can. I have put what I have done at
http://cran.mit.edu/~hopcroft/applications.html. Please take anything you wish
for your project. Following are some comments on the comments that have been
made.

Roger wrote:
> I forgot to include "html editors" in the original list. (Should I include
this? Bob had problems with this before.)

Of course "html editors" should be included. Currently I'm using gEdit but a
good "html editor" would be better.

- games, I have to agree with Roman. Not just for completeness but we run a
home business and when there is a lull, one person likes to play scrabble and
another likes to play solitary. On another note, we just took an in depth look
at moving everything to Linux since all of our computers are dual booted.
However, we had to conclude that Linux applications still have a ways to go
before we could consider switching. Maybe this project could point out to
companies what improvements they need to make to their products.

- knowledge base/expert system tools

Roger commented:
>Is this really a typical use for a computer? Feels like if I put this in, I've
got to put in "graphing tools" and other special-case activities.

I put both "knowledge base/expert system tools" and  "graphing tools" under the
category of speciality software. I believe both are important enough that they
need to be included.

- OCR
- Speach recognition/synthesis

I also think both of these need to be included. I am waiting for Corel to bring
out a Linux speech recognition program for Word Perfect.

Hilaire, I included your feature list as I believe it to be important also.

Bob