[odf-discuss] The Converter Hoax

[Daniel Carrera]

Hello,

Interesting article:

http://www.heise.de/open/artikel/92735

A bit strongly worded, but the basic argument sound:

- MS claims that they can't move to ODF because ODF can't represent 
legacy documents fully.

- If that is true then an MS OXML -> ODF converter must be lossy because 
if it isn't it would disprove Microsoft's claim (as it would produce ODF 
files that represents legacy documents fully).

- If you switch to MS OXML and use a lossy converter you haven't really 
achieved anything toward removing vendor lock-in.

I conclude:  Therefore, you should not migrate to OXML. OXML provides no 
benefit besides possibly serving as bad documentation for the binary 
formats. If you want to move to XML, pick ODF. I you can't migrate to 
ODF, you might as well stay with the binary files; OXML won't get you 
anywhere.

Cheers,
Daniel.