Re: [tdf-discuss] Re: Do not support writing to OOXML format

On 1/2/11 8:15 PM, Barbara Duprey wrote:

> Italo, one of the things that would make me (and maybe others here) feel
> better about OOXML support is if writing to the XP formats causes LibO
> to make compromises that do not have to be made going to OOXML. That is,
> if documents developed under an ODF application can be converted to a
> higher-quality product, in terms of compatibility of features and
> formatting, when going to OOXML (even in the Transitional formats) than
> they can when going to XP. Is that the case?

Writing in a different format from the native one is always a problem, 
and causes a number of compromises. The advantage of OOXML over the old 
MS proprietary formats is that is based on XML and therefore is similar 
to ODF in the sense that is a "container" of the document components 
(once you have unzipped the file, you get a number of folders and files 
with all the contents). The better choice is always the native format, 
though, and we will always promote this choice.

Writing support of OOXML is important for interoperability, which is a 
key user requirement. I do not know if writing OOXML has a higher level 
of compromises than writing in the old MS proprietary formats, because I 
am not a technical expert and I trust on developers and engineers for 
these issues. I suppose that there are different compromises.

I know that OOXML is a Microsoft format with many problems. I have been 
involved in the entire standardization process, and I was against the 
standardization of OOXML.

But once the standard has been approved, I have stopped fighting the 
document format, because I think is more important to direct my efforts 
towards user requirements. Please remember that TDF will strive FOR and 
not AGAINST, and this is a typical situation where if you are FOR user 
requirements you have to forget that you are AGAINST OOXML.

FOR is always stronger than AGAINST.

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Italo Vignoli - The Document Foundation
E-mail: italo.vignoli@documentfoundation.org
Mobile +39.348.5653829 - VoIP: +39.02.320621813
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