[odf-discuss] News on MS pluggin

[marbux]

On 10/14/06, Alex Hudson <alex at stratagia.co.uk> wrote:
>
> Russell Ossendryver wrote:
> > http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6125699.html
>
> Not too much that we didn't know, but I wonder how accurate this is:
>
>     There are other ODF-to-Office-Open-XML conversion projects under way
>     <http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9595_22-6069188.html?tag=nl>, including
>     one from the OpenDocument Foundation.
>
>
> AIUI, the ODFoundation plugin isn't anything to do with OpenXML - though
> my personal belief is that XML-to-XML is the way to go - but since we
> don't know much else about the plugin, who knows.
>
> You're right about the error in the article, but XML-to-XML is a
(deliberately?) poor solution in context. The major problem with the
MOOX-to-ODF approach  flows from the fact that  MOOX is not processed
internally by the Microsoft apps. It's part of an external process that
requires conversion to and from the binary formats.

End result? The show-stopper is that with an XML-to-XML approach ODF can not
be set set as the default File New or File Save format. And that translates
into an unpredictable mess of different file formats. E.g., if Cntrl+S
generates a MOOX instead of an ODF, even if the final file save is as an ODF
you wind up with a MOOX draft file too.
It's undoubtedly for such reasons that the Massachusetts ITD's ETRM requires
that a compliant app be able to set ODF as the default file type.

There are associated issues; e.g., user actions not supported in ODF but
supported in MOOX will remain operative in the app menu selections, etc.

I think the real news in the article is here: "Participants from Novell and
Apple Computer also proposed changes that will make the formats work with
non-Windows operating systems and with different programming languages, he
said."

Of course it doesn't bluntly say that those particular proposed changes made
it into the proposed spec.

Best,

Marbux
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