On Fri, May 08, 2009 19:24:25 PM +0300, Dotan Cohen wrote: Dotan,
I'm a bit confused. Isn't what you say here: > Having ODF render differently in MSO and OOo will certainly help to > destroy ODF. That is why I argue that OOo should render as MSO does. just what you label as unwise a few lines below: > So you leave it up to MS to code the interoperability? That does not > sound wise. Arguing that OOo should take example from MSO is **exactly** saying that Microsoft decides what is acceptable and what is not. As you yourself confirm explicitly: > Yes, the market leader gets to decide the format for everyone. That > is, the market leader gets to decide the parts of the format not > explicitly stated in the standards, for their market share of users. Now, I don't say this to mean that ODF is perfect, complete, etc... As a matter of fact, I was the first to point out, almost 3 years ago, that there would be hidden traps in underspecified parts, see http://robertogaloppini.net/2007/04/01/file-format-hidden-traps-in-opendocument-or-any-other-open-standard-and-how-to-avoid-them/ But accepting that "the market leader gets to decide for everyone", even in the underspecified parts" is just the same as saying that ODF as a whole is completely useless. If this were the case, we should have never started using ODF, it would have been just the same to keep using the OOO filters for .doc, .xls and .ppt. If the market leader gets to decide for everyone, or more exactly if this principle remains acceptable in the specific field of file formats, the market leader will continue to change its decisions every year JUST TO REMAIN THE MARKET LEADER. Whereas the whole, main, real point of ODF (and of the solutions I proposed in the piece above), without denying its current limits, is exactly to put an end to this idea that something like an alphabet can be allowed to stay under control or lead of one single for profit company. The whole point of ODF and open file formats and all the movement behind is exactly to never allow anymore that market leadership happens or is artificially maintained by tricks at the file format level. Marco Fioretti -- Your own civil rights and the quality of your life heavily depend on how software is used *around* you: http://digifreedom.net/node/84 --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
