IBM today announced the release of Lotus Symphony 1.3, an update to its year-old free productivity suite that for the first time lets users import files saved in Microsoft Office 2007's native Office Open XML (OOXML) document format.

Most (quality) specifications provide clear instructions using
those magic words SHALL, SHALL NOT, and MAY where those words have
a defined meaning for an implementor. Paragraphs are clearly
identified as either normative or informative. That way an
implementor knows what they must and may implement to claim
conformance against a specification. This approach has been well
established over time as a sensible way for spec writers and
implementors to work

Most (quality) specifications provide clear instructions using
those magic words SHALL, SHALL NOT, and MAY where those words have
a defined meaning for an implementor. Paragraphs are clearly
identified as either normative or informative. That way an
implementor knows what they must and may implement to claim
conformance against a specification. This approach has been well
established over time as a sensible way for spec writers and
implementors to work

That is the way quality specifications are written. For
example, ISO/IEC's JTC 1
Directives (link to PDF) requires that international standards
designed for interoperability "specify clearly and unambiguously
the conformity requirements that are essential to achieve the
interoperability."

With that clarity, conformance is testable and can provide
confidence of interoperability. A suite of tests may be developed
and applied to an implementation to determine which tests pass,
which fail, and hence arrive at an objective pronouncement on
conformance of an implementation against the entirety of the
specification.

In a quality specification, it should be feasible to select a
normative paragraph, identify a conformance test for it, and make
a clear statement that this test proves that an implementation
meets (or fails to meet) that requirement. Call it a test plan:
define the tests (test specification), define the expected set of
results, and define what constitutes a "pass" of each test that
establishes conformance. The plan then provides the matrix of test
spec against requirement. Simple.

Open source enterprise products are ready to support your mission critical applications, in the operating system area there's Solaris, Linux, in the middleware area there's Glassfish, JBoss, in the database area there's MySQL, PostgreSQL and even in the desktop area...which has been lagging behind in open source, but is starting to gain some ground with over 220 Million OpenOffice users.

The agreement is part of UNESCO’s ongoing effort to improve digital
inclusion globally by partnering with the private sector. Under its
terms, Sun Microsystems and UNESCO will promote the use of open source
technologies, including OpenOffice.org and OpenDocument Format (ODF)
standard, as a low-cost way to improve education with universal access
to information and knowledge. They will also support the development of
open and inclusive knowledge societies in developing and emerging
economies.

It seems you like to ignore requirements in order to defend Microsoft

Do you get paid to spread FUD like this, or is it merely a dilettantish pursuit?

I am unable to even imagine that you would be ignorant of basic standards terminology. So why do you persist in intentionally misleading your readers?

There has been quite a lot of hubbub recently about ODF conformance, in particular about how conformance to the forthcoming ODF 1.2 specification should be defined.

The proposal caused much debate. In support of the new conformance clause, IBM's Rob Weir described foreign elements (formerly so welcome in ODF) as proprietary extensions that are “evil” and as a “nuclear death ray gun”. Questioning the proposal, KOffice's Thomas Zander wrote that he was “worried that we are trying to remove a core feature that I depend on in both KOffice and Qt”. Meanwhile Microsoft's Doug Mahugh made a counter-proposal suggesting that ODF might adopt the Markup Compatibility and Extensibility mechanisms from ISO/IEC 29500 (OOXML).

Things came to a head in a 9-2-2 split vote last week which saw the new conformance text adopted in the new ODF committee specification by will of the majority. Following this there was some traffic in the blogosphere with IBM's Rob Weir commenting and Microsoft's Doug Mahugh counter-commenting on the vote and the circumstances surrounding it.

Microsoft has today published our first set of document-format implementation notes, for the ODF implementation in Office 2007 SP2. These notes, which are available on the DII web site, provide detailed information about the design decisions that went into our implementation of ODF 1.1.

Doug,

The list of elements and attributes "not supported in core Word/Excel/PowerPoint 2007" is quite long. Can you tell us what will happen, when Office 2007 encouters an unsupported element.

Will it simply be ignored?

When roundtripping - will it be deleted or preserved?

Doug,

The list of elements and attributes "not supported in core Word/Excel/PowerPoint 2007" is quite long. Can you tell us what will happen, when Office 2007 encouters an unsupported element.

Will it simply be ignored?

When roundtripping - will it be deleted or preserved?

Most folks see data formats as an inside-baseball issue, because they work in all-Microsoft organizations where incompatibilities are rare. The only hangup, in that case, comes when Microsoft releases new software (Office 2007 being the latest example). Invariably, the data format's been upgraded as well.

The data format wars have been going on for years and have provoked a substantial backlash. The anti-Microsoft crowd has an alternate data format, OpenDocument, that anyone can freely incorporate into any program, just as everyone uses the same old free, non-proprietary HTML to build Web sites.

Is Open XML an open standard? The arguments are pretty technical but boil down to this: Microsoft says OpenDocument is not good and that anyone will be able to implement its far more enlightened Open Office XML. Opponents say Microsoft has built into Open XML all manner of snares, deadfalls and booby traps to defend its monopoly.

IBM and Sun Microsystems convened a meeting in Armonk, N.Y., on Friday to discuss how to boost adoption of the standardized document format for office applications. The ODF Summit brought together representatives from a handful of industry groups and from at least 13 technology companies, including Oracle, Google and Novell.

The participants in last week's ODF Summit included Red Hat, Adobe, Computer Associates, Corel, Nokia, Intel and Linux e-mail company Scalix, in addition to Oracle, Novell and Google. The goal of the meeting, convened by Bob Sutor, IBM's vice president of standards and open source, and Simon Phipps, Sun's chief open-source officer, was to drive support for the standards "on a global level," Sutor said.

On the promotional side, IBM will draft a proposal to create an "OpenDocument Foundation" which would serve to market OpenDocument-based products.

Interoperability is one of the primary reasons why I like XML in general
and ODF in particular.

The proposed discussion list name is "oiic-formation".
(2) A preliminary statement of scope for the TC whose formation the list is
intended to discuss.

It is the intent of the ODF Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance
(IIC) TC to provide a means for software implementors and service providers to
create applications which adhere to the ODF specification and are able to
interoperate. As such, the purpose of the IIC TC includes the following:

It is the intent of the ODF Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance
(IIC) TC to provide a means for software implementors and service providers to
create applications which adhere to the ODF specification and are able to
interoperate. As such, the purpose of the IIC TC includes the following:
1. To publish test suites of ODF for applications of ODF to check their
conformance with the Standard and to confirm their interoperability;
2. To provide feedback, where necessary, to the ODF TC on ways in which the
standard could improve interoperability;
3. To produce a set of implementation guidelines;
4. To define interoperability with related standards by the creation of
profiles or technical reports;
5. To coordinate, in conjunction with the ODF Adoption TC, OASIS InterOp
demos related to ODF;

The IIC TC may also liaise with other standard bodies whose work is leveraged in
present or future ODF specifications. These include, but are not limited to, the
W3C and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34.

1. To publish test suites of ODF for applications of ODF to check their
conformance with the Standard and to confirm their interoperability;
2. To provide feedback, where necessary, to the ODF TC on ways in which the
standard could improve interoperability;
3. To produce a set of implementation guidelines;
4. To define interoperability with related standards by the creation of
profiles or technical reports;
5. To coordinate, in conjunction with the ODF Adoption TC, OASIS InterOp
demos related to ODF;

The IIC TC may also liaise with other standard bodies whose work is leveraged in
present or future ODF specifications. These include, but are not limited to, the
W3C and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34.

Now that ODF and OOXML are both set to be on the ISO/IEC books, it is useful to consider what the next productive steps are.

For genuine ODF Supporters who are concerned that ODF has languished a little out of the limelight during 2007, there are a lot of useful things to be done. You don’t even need to join the OASIS groups or your local National Body or SC34 to begin.

I suggest here are some things that will help the ODF effort coming into ODF 1.2.

OOXML? Isn't that Office Open XML? That file format, that Microsoft Office 2007 is using, that has been approved by ECMA as ECMA-376, and that is currently in a fast track process to become an ISO standard like ODF? That file format, that although its name is very similar to Open Office XML, has nothing to do with OpenOffice.org or ODF? And you may have wondered: What are Sun's OpenOffice.org developers doing with OOXML, and why? And when will we have an OOXML filter in OpenOffice.org?

ODF is the only file format that provides the level of interoperability and choice of products that our customers want.

The following standards are made freely available for standardization purposes. They are protected by copyright and therefore and unless otherwise specified, no part of these publications may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, microfilm, scanning, reproduction in whole or in part to another Internet site, without permission in writing from ISO. Requests should be addressed to the ISO Central Secretariat.

ISO/IEC 26300:2006

XHTML version

1^st
Information technology -- Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0

XHTML version

ISO
International Organization for Standardization


Document #:
ISO/IEC FDIS 24754 


Title:
Information technology -- Document description and processing languages -- Minimum requirements for specifying document rendering systems 


Scope:
 


Keywords:
IT applications in information, documentation and publishing 


Committee:
ISO IEC JTC 1 SC 34 - Document description and processing languages 

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SDO Approval Date:
 


ANSI Approval Date:
 


Date File Updated in Database
May 13 2008 4:50PM 

The New York Times' Bits tech blog is reporting that anyone with a .edu e-mail address, whether they are a current student or not, can buy Microsoft Office Ultimate for $60, or 91% off until May 16.

1) The Web site to purchase Office Ultimate at a discount is called "The Ultimate Steal."

2) Microsoft's senior VP in charge of Office Chris Capossela confirmed to the Times that anyone with a .edu e-mail address is eligible for the discount. Most colleges and universities grant their alumni graduates .edu e-mail addresses.

I ordered just before it was supposed to end the first time at the end of April. I had not problem except that it took forever for the DVD to arrive. I was never asked to show any other proof of enrollment except giving them my .edu address. I also downloaded the exe and had no problems with it (got the DVD just in case though).