RE: OpenDocument accurate representation file format? Re: [tdf-discuss] New "LibreOffice Reader" Eliminates Need for "PDF Reader"

Neither PDF nor ODF were initially designed by a global consortium like OASIS.  PDF and PostScript 
have obvious origins, as does ODF in a proposal from Sun and its contribution the XML version of a 
pre-ODF version of OpenOffice.org (and as does OOXML in a proposal to ECMA International from 
Microsoft).

My friends at AIIM International and the various ISO Committees that have nurtured the 
International Standards for PDF formats may feel rather hurt that their efforts to produce a set of 
international, interoperable PDF standards is being besmirched in this manner.  (My friends who 
work on the international standard for OOXML have learned to have thick skins.)

If you think about it, most of the standards that we have now in Information Technology started 
because someone built something useful and it attracted enough interested attention (and a willing 
contributor) to evolve into a formal standard.  Sometimes standards activities form in order to 
solve a problem in interoperability.  ASCII emerged that way and now look at where we are today 
with Unicode, something that was not dreamed of when characters were begrudgingly granted 6 bits of 
precious memory space.  It is early days yet for ODF.

Adobe promised its hardware customers interoperability and fidelity.  The specifications for 
Postscript were quite rigorous as are those for its derivative, PDF, for which there is also a 
serious interoperability and fidelity promise. This made their uptake into international standards 
and subsequent maintenance relatively easy.  ODF is not so simple.


 - Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: timofonic timofonic [mailto:timofonic@gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 06:38
To: discuss@documentfoundation.org
Subject: OpenDocument accurate representation file format? Re: [tdf-discuss] New "LibreOffice 
Reader" Eliminates Need for "PDF Reader"

Anyway, I don´t consider PDF a proper "OPEN" standard, as it´s not
designed by a global consortium like OASIS.

What about designing a new file format for this purpose and being part
of OpenDocument? Some people said DjVu being accurate but lacking some
features (vectorial image support?).

I'm not a developer at all, but I think OpenDocument format family
should evolve in this direction some day. PDF-based ISO standard
follows a lying way similar to Mono and .NET: the open standard lags
behind the official implementation. This is a very dangerous trap that
is still giving too much advantages to Adobe over competitors.


On Sun, Jun 26, 2011 at 1:07 PM, Ian Lynch <ianrlynch@gmail.com> wrote:
> On 26 June 2011 01:15, Sean White <runicpaladin@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I dont thinks thats normal somehow, i have been using Adobe Reader for
> > years
> > and have NEVER had it come past 200MB.
>
> ISTR a whole load of adverising crap in one large Acrobat download.
>
> Back to discussion, what's with all the PDF hate.
>
>
> Not hate, irritation by misuse.  Hundreds of files to download that could
> simply be in HTML pages (as Alexandro indicated). We get stuff originated in
> whatever app and distributed in pdf format when it will never ever get
> printed. In fact mostly you can produce a pdf from a web page if you really
> need to anyway. I have 100 page application forms from the EU in Acrobat
> that need huge hardware resources just to be usable. This stuff should be in
> client server databases operated through web browsers not desktop pdf files.
> I accept all this as transition noise as we move to mobile technologies and
> the web. pdf was not originally designed for these purposes, it was designed
> for systems putting the information on to paper and has been extended and
> bloated accordingly. Arguably, rather like Office applications ;-).
>
>  It serves a very good
> > purpose a standard, editable document that shows up exactly how you want it
> > WHEREVER you are and whatever OS you are using.
>
>
> Not disputing that. If you want distribute a document accurately for
> printing on paper, use pdf.
>
>
> > this has always been its
> > use and so it falls in a different document category to ODF.  ODF is an
> > office format created to compete with MSO's doc, xls an ppt formats.  to
> > essentially modify the underlying purpose to make it behave more like a PDF
> > would waste most of what we have put into it.
>
> I agree, so let's look at the future and that is the web and mobile
> tecnologies. How do we get LibO to the web? That would be a far better
> priority for the use of resources.
>
> --
> Ian
>
> Ofqual Accredited IT Qualifications (The Schools ITQ)
>
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