Also, check this forward from someone on the TC.
Jon
-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Gary Edwards <gary.edwards@...882...> To: Daniel Carrera <dcarrera@...878...> Cc: Jon Phillips <jon@...235...> Subject: Re: SVG and OpenDocument. Date: Thu, 23 Jun 2005 10:50:07 -0700
Hi Daniel,
I read through the post you mentioned. The best thing to do is submit a proposal to repair and properly extend the SVG implementation. Meaning, the best course of action is to not only point out the problem, but also provide a proposal that can work as the solution. The solution has to be application independent too.
From there it will be discussed briefly by the TC, and then sent to
both the OpenOffice.org and KOffice graphics groups for comment and testing. Then it comes back to the TC for inclusion in the spec.
Generally we don't paste anything into the specification until it can be road tested by a real world implementation. It's one of the things that makes the OpenDoc XML very unique as a standard.
I couldn't help but notice that one of the differences between MS XML and OpenDoc XML is that Microsoft wrote their specifications specifically for their applications (legacy and current). OpenDoc XML was written to be both application and platform independent. It was written to meet the needs of information generated years ago, in applications and platforms long dead. And it was written so that information can traverse time in the OpenDoc XML container, to be useful 200 years from now when there are applications, computational platforms and informations systems the likes of which we have no idea of.
The fact that Microsoft makes such a big deal about the problems of dealing with the 20 year mess of their own legacy formats screams loudly that these are not the guys we want to trust with the problems of moving mankind's knowledge from an unstructured format to one that is digital, structured and Internet ready.
~ge~
Daniel Carrera wrote:
Hi Gary,
Thank you for the info. I'll ask the developers to write to the TC and post specific conversion issues as they find them.
Cheers, Daniel.
Gary Edwards wrote:
Hi Daniel,
Let me take a look. When the OpenDoc XML TC initially embraced SVG, there were problems. Paul Langille, one of the Corel representatives to the TC, was the driving force behind putting SVG in OpenDoc. Many of the issues he brought up involved the basic problem that SVG was not ready for prime time, being unable to do things like shadows on radial objects. What we agreed on was to adopt SVG wherever we could, and implement new SVG elements and attributes as they evolved. This strategy backfired though. The W3C SVG Workgroup ended up accusing us of writing our own SVg implementations, and using our own namespaces. Michael Brauer, the OpenDoc XML Chairman, went to great lengths to appease their concerns and assure them that we would do whatever it takes to keep our specification in sync with their work. It doesn't surprise me that there are problems.
I'll read through the list and see what i can see. One suggestion is that whenever someone finds a problem with the OpenDoc XML spec implementation, they can and should post a comment directly to the General Public List. This list is distributed directly to all OpenDoc XML TC members, (both active and observer status) as well as anyone else who has an interest in OpenDoc and has subscribed. The list is at: office-comment@...676...
I can assure you that every post to this forum is discussed by the OpenDoc XML TC.
OBTW, have you taken a look at the most recent blog by Brian Jones? http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/default.aspx
He's posted a sample of the MS XML v2 file format. I'm wondering if anyone has tried an XSLT transformation to test conformance and interoperability with OpenDoc XML? Conformance testing, and coming up with some kind of compliance - interoperability rating for import and export transformations remains an important issue for the OpenDoc TC. Sadly it seems there wasn't much interest at OOo Marketing in getting involved with this important issue. Oh well. When the private sector moves in to fill this gap, as they most assuredly will, there will likely be much weeping and wailing. ~ge~