If we want compatibility with modern formats it might be a massive project with eternal bug fixing with the old programs
Yes, it might..
Or it might not... I only mean it is worth considering the options..
they probably lost their interest even before it gets anywhere near the specs of the modern programs.
And that is one of my points..
Are we doing this for what we need? Or are we doing this to reach the "specs of the modern programs"? Those might be very different things...
I think it would be better to port some modern software, even if it's a big job at first. But if the port gets made, then it already has pretty good compatibility with modern formats and maybe applying the new changes would be easier in future.
I think sometimes, this is true...
But other times, people end up adding/chasing features that virtually no one will use..
If you watch the amount of changes that go into things like Open/Libre/{whatever it's called now}Office just trying to "catch" the current products with features I think most people will never use, I think THAT is a HUGE amount of work.
Now true, if you port the development libs over, so you can just use the same codebase with virtually no changes, then you can use the work of others.. Great.
But if you have to keep re-porting major parts whenever an update comes out, it might not be worth it..
And I've always been a fan of native code for native OS/hardware for speed and simplicity...
desiv