Document conversion engine

[Michael Stahl]

hi Flavio,

On 03/07/12 12:45, Flavio Moringa wrote:

> I chose as my masters dissertation investigation topic trying to improve
> the document conversion engine in LibreOffice (ex: converting docx to
> odt), and as such I would like to know who is working on the conversion
> engines and how can I help.

the document conversion engines in LibreOffice are called Writer, Calc,
Draw and Impress.  conversion from e.g. DOCX to ODT happens by importing
the DOCX file with the DOCX import filter into Writer, and then
exporting the document from Writer with the ODF export filter.

there are also a few filters (such as XSLT filters, and writerperfect if
i remember correctly) that use ODF as an intermediate format, i.e., they
import by converting their format to ODF and then importing that into
the LO application, and export the reverse way.

> I'm not a programmer, so what I'm interested in doing is something in
> the lines of investigating the main conversion problems, identifying the
> possible conversion flows, analysing the way the conversion flow is
> implemented in LibreOffice, and eventually trying to improve this flow
> somehow.

it seems to me the main conversion problem is a lack of manpower to
improve the filters.  oh, and more regression tests would be useful.