Hi Charles
> To clarify what I meant:
>
> 1. Office 2000 will save its documents in proprietary HTML (by default I
> believe).
I think you're (almost) correct here. I understand that MS Office 2000
saves its files in a mixture of HTML, CSS and XML. In order to provide the
full functionality available in the native proprietary format (MS's spin) -
which has the dangers of locking you in to an MS solution - these file
format will include a number of features which have been submitted to W3C,
but have not been ratified (such as Active Style Sheets).
Note that real world deployment and experience of new technologies is
expected by W3C (as Dave Raggett explained at a WWW conference about 3 years
ago when HTML 3.2 was released). However such technologies should be
expected to be flagged as experimental, and authoring tools should ideally
enable experimental features to be switched off (as the US DoJ forced MS to
do with its Visual J++ development kit).
But, on the other hand, surely the use of XML, HTML and CSS is better than
the current binary formats? And if the functionality provided by the binary
formats is still needed (e.g. animation effects in PowerPoint presentations)
but aren't provided by the current set of open standards, what should be
done?
What are the other companies (such as Lotus and Borland) which provide
proprietary file formats doing?
Imagine the Department of Justice forced Microsoft to provide more open
formats, what do you think they should do to make life easier for large
scale institutions? I'd like the tools to provide control over the set of
features they generate. But as regards development of the file formats it's
difficult to say.
I'd be interested in ideas and scenarios. I'm particularly interested in
realistic scenarios for large organisations which takes on board the issues
raised in the "Value for Money Considerations in Software Strategies for
Higher Education" report at http://www.jtap.ac.uk/reports/htm/jtap-029.html
Brian
> Thus the idea is(was) that in conjunction with Site Server and
> NT Server you could easily develop an "intranet" or Groupware type
> stuff. Nothing wrong with this approach if an organisation consiously
> makes a decision to go down the MS route (arguments in favour and against
> will be plenty).
> So yes, you will need office 2000 not to view but to handle (edit, ammend
> etc) the documents. I have no doubt that IE (even on non-MS platforms)
> will get a filter to allow it to view Office2000 docs.
>
> 2. I am not suggesting that office 2000 will not produce pure HTML (any
> way, as pure as it gets from MS). But the user would have to make a
> consious effort to publish such pages.
>
> 3. My point is that as it becomes easier for users to publish material
> using particular tools that make the material only available to similar
> tools you loose the openess and common standards. At the end of the day
> one has to decide who is the target audience for the material that is
> made available on an Internal or External www server. If you expect
> everyone to have MS tools then publish in MS formats, the same as if you
> expect everyone to have 17" monitors running at 1280x1024 ... As they
> say where I come from "you pays your money you takes your choice".
>
> With something like 90% of the desktop OSs and similar proportion
> of the office suites, it is rather innevitable that web sites will get a
> strong MS flavour.
>
> <QUOTE from: http://www.w3.org/Consortium/ >
> The W3C was founded in October 1994 to lead the World Wide Web to its
> full potential by developing common protocols that promote its evolution
> and ensure its interoperability. We are an international ...
> </QUOTE>
>
> Ehmmm, "... common protocols ..."
>
>
> Regards
> Charles
>
> ==============================================
> Charles Christacopoulos, Secretary's Office, University of Dundee,
> Dundee DD1 4HN, (Scotland) United Kingdom.
> Tel: +44+(0)1382-344891. Fax: +44+(0)1382-201604.
> WebDad of http://somis.ais.dundee.ac.uk/
> Home of the Scottish Search Maestro http://somis2.ais.dundee.ac.uk/
> Happily using OS2 Warp.
> ==============================================
>
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