Doug Mahugh : Standards-Based Interoperability - 0 views
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Standards-Based Interoperability
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05 June 09
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Interoperability without Standards
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First, let’s consider how software interoperability works when it is not standards-based. Consider the various ways that four applications can share data, as shown in the diagram to the right. There are six connections between these four applications, and each connection can be traversed in either direction, so there are 12 total types of interoperability involved.
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As the number of applications increases, this complexity grows rapidly. Double the number of applications to 8 total, and there will be 56 types of interoperability between them:
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through standards maintenance, transparency of implementation details, and collaborative interoperability testing.
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Here’s where those workarounds will need to be implemented: Note the complexity of this diagram.
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In the real world, interoperability is almost never achieved in this way. Standards-based interoperability is much better approach for everyone involved,
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whether that standard is an open one such as ODF (IS26300)
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or a de-facto standard set by one popular implementation.
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or Open XML (IS29500)
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The core premise of open standards-based interoperability is this:
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each application implements the published standard as written, and this provides a baseline for delivering interoperability.
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the existence of a standard addresses many of the issues involved, and the other issues can be addressed
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In the standards-based scenario, the standard itself is the central mechanism for enabling interoperability between implementations: This diagram is much simpler
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there is no question that users of other products are massively surprised by
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How this all applies to Office 2007 SP2 I covered last summer the set of guiding principles that we used to guide the work we did to support ODF in Office 2007 SP2.
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applied in a specific order
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I’d like to revisit the top two guiding principles
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Guiding Principle #1: Adhere to the ODF 1.1 Standard
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Guiding Principle #2: Be Predictable
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Being predictable is also known as the principle of least astonishment.
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What about Bugs and Deviations? Of course, the existence of a published standard doesn’t prevent interoperability bugs from occurring.
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deviations from the requirements
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different interpretations
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Our approach to the transparency issue has been to document the details of our implementation through published implementer notes.
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Interoperability Testing The final piece of the puzzle is hands-on testing
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What else would you like to know about how Office approaches document format interoperability?
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a standard (evolved and improved as reality demands) is the proper foundation for resolving interoperabilty
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All complex software has bugs, and some bugs can present significant challenges to interoperability. Let’s consider the case that 3 of the 4 applications have bugs that affect interoperability, as shown in the diagram to the right.
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(1) their spreadsheets having their formulas lost when interchanged with Excel 2007
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(2) not being able to handle the formulase received in Excel 2007's ODF output.
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I am creating my own fantasy about the state of affairs
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it is far too early to declare it to be unsuccessful
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I cannot fault the Microsoft approach as incorrect
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I was at the year-ago DII meeting where the guiding principles were announced and their application to spreadsheet formulas described. I applauded the principles and understood the reasoning for formulas.
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How this would impact various groups of users and non-users (who still want to interoperate) of Office 2007 did not surface in my consciousness.
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there is NO published standard for ODF spreadsheet formulas yet.
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Nor is there any de-facto standard that everyone agrees on.
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the “spaghetti diagram" method, with all of the complexity and risk of bugs that entails
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No implementer we know of has attempted that
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In the case of spreadsheet formulas, help is on the way -- OpenFormula is under development for use with ODF 1.2.
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I’d like to keep this thread on-topic
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I appreciate the post, very good
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Visually I would rather frame it in terms of convergence, a spiral.
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and user satisfaction.
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I doubt someone would ever find a magic bullet to interoperability
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