[odf-discuss] A story of TIFF

[Alex Hudson]

marbux wrote:
> I think you've missed something somewhere along the line. 65 % interop
> with OOo was what was achieved by the August version of da Vinci that
> was based on ODF 1.0 with its optional foreign metadata tag. My
> understanding is that the current version using the proposed ODF 1.2
> changes already achieves near-perfect interop in both directions
> except for the ODF page layout engine tags that can not be mapped to
> MS Word IMBR.

(In the e-mail you quoted, the 65% figure was attributed to the ODF 
_1.2_ version, not 1.0, and the new "interop extensions" were discussed 
- so I don't think there is a mistake there)

So far, we've discussed two ODF 1.2 features:

a. marking out foreign data with "Here be Dragons" metadata
b. disallowing ODF-compliant applications from slaying the Dragons

Neither of those features allows OOo to understand these MSO dragons, 
nor is foreign data capable of being understood by a solely-ODF 
compliant application (by definition). In fact, the explanation given is 
a very different one:

    "So how is it that the new metadata model helps the process of
    converting MS specific but unspecified binary objects, processing
    instructions and system dependencies to ODF useable XML encodings?

    "Well, it doesn't happen overnight.  That's the first thing.  But it
    will happen over time because the mechanism of describing these dark
    binary objects will in place with ODF 1.2. [...]  We're going to
    wrap  the dark object for perfect fidelity on round trip.  And we're
    going to pop it into a parallel generic, semi descriptive <interop>
    element, and then fully describe it using the new metadata model
    syntax.  This will give other ODF 1.2 ready applications a handle
    they can grab to at least provide a partial rendering of the objects
    characteristics."


We can say this in fewer words: "We expect ODF-compliant apps to 
understand our special Office foreign data, and attempt to decode it".

All of this stuff about endpoints, "interop", fidelity, yadda yadda - 
this isn't what concerns me. If people want a non-OXML format in Office 
that saves all the features, etc., etc., great.

*One* thing concerns me with this plugin: How good is the ODF export?

Exporting proprietary Office binary blobs as "dark matter" and flagging 
it for OOo to attempt to understand: it's an interesting approach. But 
it's not ODF.

Cheers,

Alex.