Well let me see if I understand the problem in general. Microsoft has
had a policy of 'embrasse and extend' meaning they will adopt a
standard and then add to it in such a fashion as to make backwards
compatibility impossible if you employ any of their extensions. Sooo
what is broken. Has Microsoft failed to properly implement the
standard or has it 'extended' it? Of course they will argue extensions
are improvements to the basic standard not bugs and that argument has
a sort of logic to it especially to the faithful.
On May 10, 2009, at 2:38 AM, Răzvan Sandu wrote:
That means we will soon have a corpus of BROKEN OpenDocument
documents on the market, especially spreadsheets. It also means the
risk of corrupting VALID ODF documents (produced by OpenOffice.org)
if they are opened, modified, then saved in MS Office 2007.
I'll be very interested in knowing the opinion of the users on this
list on a few practical matters:
- how should we handle broken ODF documents (especially inside a
company) ?
It depends on whether the break is an extension or failure to meet the
standard. If the break is an extension you have the option to adopt
the extension. If the problem is a failure to meet the standard I
think I would open an error window that says in essence, "The standard
says ... and this document fails to meet the standard." Then I would
offer the person using OO an option of repairing the document or
leaving things as they are. In any case I would NOT 'repair' the
document in such a fashion as to make it impossible for a M$ user to
open it or use it.
- how should we effectively put pressure on Microsoft regarding
that, comercially and legally ?
There is nothing you can legally do. However, they have relatives in
this country. There are ways. <grin>
- does it worth implementing a workaround in OpenOffice.org, in
order to correctly handle these broken ODF documents ?
You must first define what you mean by broken.
- how to define an overall strategy for avoiding the creation of
broken ODF Documents ?
You must first define what you mean by broken.
- how should we effectively advertise this Microsoft bug, in order
to raise public awareness of it ?
I think that the use of the error window (see above).
--
St. Doug, Tigger and Puppy in our memory.
Tir na nOg
Wilton, NH USA
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