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The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

simonwillison.net

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Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#121

Post by johnsmith1840 »

verdverm wrote: post #13
nomel wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Bundling all of LibreOffice seems like a pretty huge dependency What's the alternative library you see?

Why not computer use or using the tools the user prefers instead? The primary office suites have APIs/CLIs now

If you've ever actually gone down this route you will try exactly this realize how much of a cluster f these products are and just use libre.

I did the exact same thing in my AI system. Spent an ENOURMOUS amount of time trying everything I could and in the end libre was the only thing even somewhat functional.

Easily 2 months of my life lost to these god forsaken systems. APIs and CLIs sound reasonable until you actually attempt anything in this space.

Computer use is exactly the same thing. Go try this: go to a google doc and dev tools check out the dom and now do the same for a word doc. Eye gouging pain of trying to get anything to work.

Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#123

Post by senectus1 »

jbird99 wrote: post #97
isityettime wrote: post #78

The new app is an unbelievable mess. Settings are senselessly organized, too. The whole thing has this aesthetic slickness and then underneath it's like the people who make it have never even used it. It's not surprising that it's pulled in absolutely massive dependencies, although I'm not sure it's the wrong call on some operating systems. LibreOffice is pretty tried and true.

Almost like it's... vibe coded.

yeah, that seems obvious by now.

Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#125

Post by johnsmith1840 »

cpursley wrote: post #76
verdverm wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

one does not just "throw tokens" at a problem, Ai is not that capable, and we are talking about MS Office file format, likely a NP hard problem

AI is especially good at ports like this where there’s a known and well tested surface area.

*that only microsoft has access to.

These guys puposely obscure controls and understanding of these products 100% to prevent you doing a port.

Just go open a microsoft word doc in the browser and look at the dom.

Despair! Horror!

Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#126

Post by johnsmith1840 »

cpursley wrote: post #3

I still don’t understand why with all their cash these companies dont redo their apps in Rust or native. They are all so heavy and dog slow. There are already some very fast cross platform (wasm too!) libraries that can do what poppler does as well as parse and produce various office file formats. Because 2gb is crazy town, these things could be around 100mb, just throw some tokens at the problem.

You should go actually try to make any basic automation work around these systems.

They purposely obscured, google doc is another example they completly hide the dom!

I spent months fighting word processing systems and ended up shipping libre. There's almost zero alternatives without that becoming your entire company.

Re: The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

#127

Post by RestartKernel »

isityettime wrote: post #78

The new app is an unbelievable mess. Settings are senselessly organized, too. The whole thing has this aesthetic slickness and then underneath it's like the people who make it have never even used it. It's not surprising that it's pulled in absolutely massive dependencies, although I'm not sure it's the wrong call on some operating systems. LibreOffice is pretty tried and true.

They removed the global shortcut to show a portable chat overlay. That one entrypoint must've been the source of at least 80% of my chats, yet apparently it was considered too vestigial to keep.
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