Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for the link. Most interesting.
In response to earlier comments, I'm glad that Sebastian is still
encouraging TEI adoption by writing OpenOffice import / export filters. In
the case of TEI, this must have been a major undertaking (given its
complexity), but therefore presumably one taken on for a reason. TEI needs
more advocacy, more specifically in the case of smaller institutions in
terms of the tools and procedures we could adopt.
When I recently wrote some OpenOffice import / export filters (e.g., to
allow our naive end-users harmlessly to edit XML using OpenOffice Impress
[or Powerpoint if they must], I was pleasantly surprised at just how easy
it is for anyone with XML / XSLT knowledge). It took about 20 minutes to
get things working and a large part of this ease was the fact that it was
a simple case of gunzipping a representative file and writing XSLT for the
filters based on the clean ODF-defined XML. I shudder to think how
difficult this would be were I to try it with Microsoft's OOXML
(e.g., I have no intuitive idea what (paraphrasing here) "formatAsWord95"
means as an attribute).
I would strongly argue that such vendor specific attributes should not be
part of any standard, ISO or otherwise (and while we're at it, making sure
that the standard has correct spelling and agrees with the laws of
mathematics would not be a bad thing either!). Indeed should OOXML become
a standard as things stand, especially given the way it is being pushed
by committee stuffing, it will, in my opinion, lead to a complete
undermining of the ISOs longstanding and well-deserved reputation as a
standards body.
Regards,
James
On Wed, 25 Jul 2007, Ottevanger, Jeremy wrote:
> Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2007 10:58:33 +0100
> From: "Ottevanger, Jeremy" <[log in to unmask]>
> Reply-To: Museums Computer Group <[log in to unmask]>
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [MCG] ODF (ISO 26300) document format vs. OOXML
>
> A follow-up. In case you haven't seen the Chris Rusbridge's
> always-worth-reading contribution to the DCC blog from yesterday, it's
> here and has some quite pertinent thoughts on ODF/OOXML:
> http://digitalcuration.blogspot.com/2007/07/question-on-approaches-to-cu
> rating.html
>
> Cheers, Jeremy
>
>
> Jeremy Ottevanger
> Web Developer, Museum Systems Team
> Museum of London Group
> 46 Eagle Wharf Road
> London. N1 7ED
> Tel: 020 7410 2207
> Fax: 020 7600 1058
> Email: [log in to unmask]
> www.museumoflondon.org.uk
> Museum of London is changing; our lower galleries will be closed while they undergo a major new development. Visit www.museumoflondon.org.uk to find out more.
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