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The ChatGPT/Codex app bundles a full copy of LibreOffice

simonwillison.net

251–260 of 277 posts

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

#251
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's ironic about this is, afaik there's no programmatic way to get a screenshot of a PowerPoint on windows other than opening up PowerPoint and screenshotting it. I only discovered this when I first tried out Anthropics official PowerPoint skill when it came out this winter. If anything happens from this, I hope it forces Microsoft to address some of its long standing hostile to power users issues so they can stay…

This can absolutely be done programmatically. I just added the ability to do that using PowerPoint for Windows yesterday in my uv/python tool `markdown-pptx`. Codex added the functionality in less than 5 minutes. https://github.com/pseudosavant/markdown-pptx/

Thanks for sharing, now im wondering if they did in fact grant my wish since I messed with this in January. Im lucky my job does not require me to make any pptx presentations.

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

#252
post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're also great at powershell, you just need to tell it to do so. sh is neat but it's 55 years old, there are newer and better shell environment concepts out there and the robots can handle them well too, try it some time!

PowerShell unfortunately just isn't that first-class, even on Windows. You'll inevitably discover, if you do this, that certain things simply can't be automated via PowerShell, that some PowerShell modules wrap or lag behind older Windows CLI tools, that various things you want to do still require manual registry hacks, etc. Try starting from a blank slate Windows machine and making a commitment to only changing sett…

Your argument is directed at Windows, not PowerShell. The shell is just a shell, if a certain thing you're looking to configure doesn't have an easy cmdlet, that doesn't mean powershell is bad, just that MS didn't give you the easy button. Similar to many unix tools, some of what you need to interact with has a dedicated CLI, other things have you poking at the configuration database directly (ini or yaml or whatever for unix, registry for windows).

If you don't like the Windows style of configuration, run powershell on linux - it's awesome there too!

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

#253
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Computer use is slow and can take control of the application focus. I’ll be doing things while Claude runs in the background. Suddenly it decides to open the app and try to do something + screenshot it.

I don't know how many times I've had to yell at codex or claude to use/implement headless versions of whatever it's doing at the time, interrupts me trying to multitask and play Battlefield or Factorio while they work :P

Another good reason to sandbox them into a VM :P

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

#255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A full implementation/rewrite of something like word, which is pretty complex and the quantity of edge cases is insane, in a relatively short amount of time, months, is very hard. If they succeed with AI it will be huge: it's basically not possible to do it today with humans, no matter how many people you put on the job.

I'm not talking about that, but existing utility tools (in Rust) that can generate MS document format. Perhaps not perfect, but these work today.

I wouldn’t imagine recreating Apache poi would be a terrible reach for a human let alone a llm.

Anything beyond basic utilities though I have a slightly harder time seeing.

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

#256
post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Computer use is slow and can take control of the application focus. I’ll be doing things while Claude runs in the background. Suddenly it decides to open the app and try to do something + screenshot it.

Runs in the background now

https://x.com/ClaudeDevs/status/2095226982644830648

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

#257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They just imply them not having to doesn't dismiss the original comment, thread being more about morals than laws. That being said, hoping for any financial support from AI companies would be really naive. Using others work without retribution is at the core of their model.

> That being said, hoping for any financial support from AI companies would be really naive. Using others work without retribution is at the core of their model. I have no such expectations. They believe that they own the world and owe nothing, as you said.

They have correctly identified that they own the world and owe nothing. If you don't like that, should've used a different license.

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

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That being said, hoping for any financial support from AI companies would be really naive. Using others work without retribution is at the core of their model. I have no such expectations. They believe that they own the world and owe nothing, as you said.

They have correctly identified that they own the world and owe nothing. If you don't like that, should've used a different license.

I don't use Expat, BSD, CC licenses which allows unattributed free contributions. Nothing I use is permissive.

OTOH, do you think they care about source available restrictive licenses or Copyright laws, or laws in general?

If you believe so, I have a bridge which you can customize with a text prompt for sale.

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

#259
post #215
post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's ironic about this is, afaik there's no programmatic way to get a screenshot of a PowerPoint on windows other than opening up PowerPoint and screenshotting it. I only discovered this when I first tried out Anthropics official PowerPoint skill when it came out this winter. If anything happens from this, I hope it forces Microsoft to address some of its long standing hostile to power users issues so they can stay…

I have made puppt cli for this, it includes high dpi rendering per-slide/all-slides and in place editing https://github.com/artpar/puppt it allows your llms to see the ppt files structurally apart from just rendering it

Cool project! I'm playing around with some similar stuff, but via uv/Python. Impressive you aren't leveraging any other existing libraries for OpenXML parsing, editing, or rendering. Any especially tricky gotchas you've run into for this tool?

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

#260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a feeling you should learn about Poe's law: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poe's_law

Anyone quoting Poe's Law is clearly just a Nazi. ... For those that can't see the sarcasm: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law

I have a feeling you should learn about...

OH SHI~

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