Naz wrote:
However, I don't see why a reference implementation is needed. The
whole idea of content/presentation separation is to avoid this. In
HTML, I don't need a reference implementation to know that I use <ul>
to set up a bulleted list, for example. Any editor that knows that
that is the underlying markup should be able to non-destructively edit
the markup despite any presentational differences they may have.
I have been under the impression that the whole design goal of ODF was
to achieve this level of semantic abstraction, and there are no words
to express my disappointment at finding that this is not the case.
A reference implementation is used as a definitive interpretation for
that specification. This helps to discover errors and ambiguities in
the specification. It is very difficult to fully specify anything, and
at least with a reference implementation, you know who is correct.
I frequently see web pages rendered differently depending on the web
browser used. Which one is correct and accurate? A reference
implementation would answer that question immediately.
It is clearly important to have a fully and correctly specified system,
but that does not remove the helpfulness of a reference implementation.
I only vaguely remember the precise behavior that you use to claim that
a destructive edit exists. Did I consider it a bug? Yes! Now, which
behavior is correct?
In this context, however, the first issue of discussion seems to be the
ODF file format and how it should be rendered. We only care that it is
always and consistently rendered exactly the same. If I save a file,
reopen the file, and the rendering has changed, well, where is the bug?
Is the data properly rendered? Was the data changed on write? A
reference implementation would help sort that out.
--
Andrew Pitonyak
My Macro Document: http://www.pitonyak.org/AndrewMacro.odt
My Book: http://www.hentzenwerke.com/catalog/oome.htm
Info: http://www.pitonyak.org/oo.php
See Also: http://documentation.openoffice.org/HOW_TO/index.html
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