On Wed, 2005-28-09 at 15:47 -0500, Mike McCarty wrote:
...snip...
I like plain ASCII text, myself. But diagrams in documents can go a long way in helping understand how a complicated piece of software works (like a multi-processor debugger I wrote a few years ago: two separate programs, five threads communicating via messages). Nice diagrams are difficult with ASCII text :-)
I'll agree with that.
I just checked and OO can import many graphic formats including DXF and EPS and can create formulae.
My point being ; If documents were all stored in a uniform format then anybody who has access to them should be able to read them without having to use proprietary software. If you were to write a technical document and send it to a customer who does not have access to a version of word that will open your document then you either need save it in a different format, and word may tell you that something may be lost, or the customer has to upgrade to a version that will read your document. If the document was saved in ODF then there is free {as in beer} software he can get to read your document, and once all vendors support ODF, you will no longer have to worry what software your customers use.