__/ [ High Plains Thumper ] on Saturday 20 January 2007 03:57 \__
> Erik Funkenbusch wrote:
>> Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>
>>> Open XML: Six thousand pages, one month, no chance...
>>>
>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>>| Weary of cynicism, I've tried to believe that Microsoft's
>>>| approach to international open document standards really
>>>| does have the user in mind. I want to believe: there's
>>>| enough nonsense to worry about without having to worry
>>>| about gratuitously complex, changing, proprietary
>>>| standards. If Microsoft agrees, as it says it does, and
>>>| is genuinely on the road to taking that worry away, then
>>>| by gum I'll be happy never to think about it again.
>>>|
>>>| [...]
>>>|
>>>| The answer is to game the system. As part of this, the
>>>| company has created (by itself, unlike Open Doc) a
>>>| proposal for OOXML that is six thousand pages long, and
>>>| then put it into the fast-track approval system with very
>>>| minimal time for discussion and objection.
>>> `----
>>>
>>> http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10004805o-20
>>> 00331777b,00.htm
>>
>> What I find absolutely hilarious is all the ODF supporters
>> and their conspiracy theories about OOXML being 6000 pages
>> on purpose, to make it impossible to implement.
>>
>> All this ignores the fact that when Microsoft submitted
>> OOXML to Ecma it was only 1500 pages long, and the ECMA
>> process, pushed by non-microsoft ECMA members pushed the
>> standard out to 6000 pages.
>>
>> Funny nobody seems to remember that.
>
> ECMA is a standards organisation. 1,500 pages of
> documentation were inadequate, requiring further
> clarification. Therefore, what you state does not make
> sense. Instead it tends to blame the standards organisation
> for its failure to rubber stamp a product submittal that was
> inadequate. Your description of "pushed by non-microsoft
> [sic] ECMA members" makes it sound as though you expect them
> to behave as a Microsoft cartel.
>
> There are issues with OOXML, with compatibility with
> standards and inclusion of proprietary formats making it
> vendors specific.
>
> Perhaps the best explanation is summarised in:
>
> http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=
> 20070117145745854
>
> or http://tinyurl.com/2pkatq
>
> | Starting with the somewhat silly, OOXML does not conform to
> | ISO 8601:2004 "Representation of Dates and Times."
> | Instead, OOXML section 3.17.4.1, "Date Representation," on
> | page 3305, requires that implementations replicate a
> | Microsoft bug that dictates that 1900 is a leap year, which
> | in fact it isn't. Similarly, in order to comply with
> | OOXML, your product would be required to use the WEEKDAY()
> | spreadsheet function, and therefore assign incorrect dates
> | to some days of the week, and also miscalculate the number
> | of days between certain dates.
> |
> | More substantively in the contradiction department, OOXML
> | does not follow ISO 639 "Codes for the Representation of
> | Names and Languages." That standard defines a list of
> | codes that are maintained by a Registration Authority
> | charged with keeping the list current as ethno-linguistic
> | changes evolve. Instead, section 2.18.52, "ST_LangCode
> | (Two Digit Hexadecimal Language Code)" (page 2531) says
> | that you must use a fixed list of numeric language codes
> | rather than the already existing set that provide for
> | interoperability among other standards-compliant products ?
> | a not unimportant factor in a text standard.
> |
> | Similarly, 6.2.3.17 "Embedded Object Alternate Image
> | Requests Types (page 5679) and section 6.4.3.1 "Clipboard
> | Format Types" (page 5738) refer back to Windows Metafiles
> | or Enhanced Metafiles ? each of which are proprietary
> | formats that have hard-coded dependencies on the Windows
> | operating system itself. OOXML should instead have
> | referenced ISO/IEC 8632 "Computer Graphics Metafile" ? a
> | platform neutral standard.
The 'standard' is not 6,000-pages long. Worse... it's not even fully
documented.
The Formats of Excel 2007
,----[ Quote ]
| The "Excel Macro-Enabled Workbook" option saves as an "xlsxm"
| extension. It is OOXML plus proprietary Microsoft extensions.
| These extensions, in the form of binary blob called
| vbaProject.bin, represent the source code of the macros. This
| part of the format is not described in the OOXML specification.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/01/formats-of-excel-2007.html
http://schestowitz.com/Weblog/archives/2006/01/09/exchange-servers-failure/
--
~~ Best wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | "These characters were randomly picked"
http://Schestowitz.com | RHAT GNU/Linux ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
run-level 5 Oct 18 14:45 last=S
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