[odf-discuss] strategy for ODF migration (was: A story of TIFF)

[Daniel Carrera]

On Sun, 2007-02-04 at 17:55 +0100, Peter Vandenabeele wrote:
> Now, if we let the customer choose, a logic conclusion might be to ask all
> suppliers of plug-ins and converters if they can provide the following:
> 
>   A plug-in, converter that has an optional "full-fidelity" flag (like
> a check-box in
>   the "Save As" dialog), to let it save files either in:
> 
>   * "ODF" mode (full-fidelity == OFF):[snip]
>   * "ODFX" mode (full-fidelity == ON):[snip]

This is tempting, but I see a danger.

* For any given person's perspective, it makes sense to use "ODFX".
Since using ODFX does not _decrease_ interop (it just fails to add any).
For a user, there is no advantage to ODF mode.

* Therefore, everyone will work in ODFX-mode.

* Therefore, this is functionally equivalent to everyone making their
own extensions to ODF.

This is a case of the prisoner's dilemma. If everyone acts according to
their best interest, we all lose.

In addition, I think this is what's likely to happen. Everyone adding
their own tags and attributes. And truth be told, this is not always
wrong. But that's precisely the problem. It's easy to get started, and
it's always tempting to add a few more tags that suit you...

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