[odf-discuss] Alternative to the Foundation plugin

[Daniel Carrera]

On Sun, 2007-02-04 at 13:28 +0100, Thomas Zander wrote:
> > 3. Like the Foundation plugin, it extends ODF. But the "dark objects"
> > won't be dark at all. They'll be XML and mostly documented.
> 
> This point completely misses the goal. Having a readable file does
> not make it better.

Having them readable doesn't make it worse.

> The goal of storing data that would otherwise be lost in the
> conversion is to be able to not loose that data.

Fine. And the alternative I described accomplishes that just as well,
and with several advantages.

> No application should ever try to read those dark objects,

That's not what Gary said. Gary said that over time applications would
figure out what those dark objects mean, and that in ODF 1.2 they would
add additional metadata to those dark objects to give applications a
better chance to decode them. The alternative I posed accomplishes that
too, but better.

> So making things readable XML is a bad thing as people might get the
> idea that its something that OOo should read and handle.

Because the average user likes to read the XML sources, right? And most
users will know that the plugin stores binary blobs in the "ODF" file
they made which are outside the ODF spec and OOo has no chance of
interpreting, and based on that knowledge most users will look kindly on
OOo when it cant read them, correct?

> Which basically means you 
> extended ODF without creating a specification.

But extending ODF with binary blobs is not "extending ODF without a
specification"?

> Which is a really bad idea.

I agree it's a bad idea. Just like the Foundation plugin.

> The foundation plugin is not extending ODF.

This is news to me. Every piece of information I've received recently
from Marbux and Gary indicates that they are, as per section 1.5. I
would be interested to know how these "dark objects" are stored "as per
section 1.5" (the section that explains how to extend ODF properly)
without extending ODF.

Best,
Daniel.
-- 
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May people in high places take notice of you.
May all your wishes come true.
  -- Chinese curse.