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To Know How to Handle (Read or Write) LibreOffice or Apache OpenOffice Writer or Calc Documents via Extensions from Java or Macro Programs
What Are Our Primal Reference Documents?
Our primal reference documents are the documents included in LibreOffice SDK, but documents directly included in LibreOffice SDK are basically 'Java API documents'-like API documents.
. . . First, there is a thing called LibreOffice SDK?
Yes, it includes some tools to develop UNO extensions and some documents. It has to be installed separately from LibreOffice itself.
Java API documents are . . . those descriptions of classes, interfaces, etc. . . . They are good for learning specifications of each class, but if we are told to learn how to make Java programs solely based on those documents, we will despair.
. . . So, there are Web documents linked to from the documents included in LibreOffice SDK. They include tutorial-like contents.
That's good.
What Should We Be Aware of When We Read Our Primal Reference Documents?
However, in fact, they are old documents of OpenOffice.org era, and I would say, I find some descriptions confusing, to some degree.
What is OpenOffice.org era? Was there such an era on the Earth?
Ah, we need to know the history of LibreOffice to know what is OpenOffice.org. And if you don't know what OpenOffice.org is, you won't understand why OpenOffice.org is mentioned in those tutorial-like contents and how we should interpret the contents.
So, what is the history?
There was StarOffice, a proprietary office suite, which originated in 1985 as StarWriter by StarDivision (a company).
Ah-ha.
OpenOffice.org is the discontinued open-source office software suite, an open-sourced version of the earlier StarOffice.
I see.
LibreOffice is an open-source office software suit forked from OpenOffice.org, being developed as a project of The Document Foundation (a non-profit organization).
So, basically, when OpenOffice.org is mentioned in documents, we should interpret that the description also applies to LibreOffice.
Basically, yes, but as documents aren't modified, sometimes, things don't apply to LibreOffice. For example, some tools mentioned in documents don't exist in LibreOffice. Sometimes, sample codes in documents don't work, or aren't so optimal for the newest specifications. As some sample programs are separately included in LibreOffice SDK, in some cases, they may be more appropriate to refer to to know how to implement programs for the newest specifications. . . . Anyway, they are official documents, and they will be our almost sole reference documents.
Aha-ha, then, we have to do what we can do with those documents.
When those documents aren't enough, we will have to experiment, creating test programs and running them, or we may have to refer to source codes.
All right.
By the way, there is also an open-source office software suit called Apache OpenOffice, which is another successor project of OpenOffice.org, being developed as a project of The Apache Software Foundation (a non-profit organization). As the same tutorial-like documents are used in Apache OpenOffice, most of our descriptions should apply to Apache OpenOffice too.
I see.
Although UNO APIs include package names like com.sun.star, that's because of that history.
Ah-ha.
- Apache OpenOffice Wiki. (2014/01/02). Apache OpenOffice Developer's Guide. Retrieved from https://wiki.openoffice.org/wiki/Documentation/DevGuide/OpenOffice.org_Developers_Guide
- Wikipedia. (2016/09/15). LibreOffice. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LibreOffice
- Wikipedia. (2016/09/17). Apache OpenOffice. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_OpenOffice
- Wikipedia. (2016/09/06). OpenOffice.org. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org
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