Shawn, It does have an effect on you as a programmer. By becoming a standard, you as a programmer will have to implement code to read and write documents in that format, and since a significant part of the standard involves proprietary and patented Microsoft software and algorithms, you would have no hope of producing a reasonable reproduction of the format without those proprietary and closely guarded (ip) of Microsoft, and they may decide not to give it to you at all, specially if you are an open source developer or developing a competing application to theirs. Unfortunately by winning, Microsoft has destroyed the credibility of ISO as a credible source of reference regarding what flies and what does not. Cheers Szemir On April 1, 2008 16:15, Shawn wrote: > What I don't get is why this decision really matters to me as a programmer. > > Granted the ideals being abused in the process need to be brought to > light. And the blatant rigging of a system to push the product of a > single corporation that only that corporation can profit from - and > potentially destroy competing products/standards - needs to be examined > in detail. Otherwise ISO is dead for lack of faith/trust. > > But, as a programmer, I'm going to look at the standards I can work > with. Now there are two - ODF and OOXML. Between the two, I'm going to > go with the one that is easier or quickest to implement as fully as > possible. That isn't OOXML. > > So, what I see happening is that even if OOXML is approved (there's > still some doubts on this - see links below), it will likely become a > meaningless standard that no one will use. > > In other words "Ok Microsoft - you can play with your new toy. But the > rest of us are going to keep playing with the toy we know works." > > The ISO process was turned into a political one - rather than a > technical one. Therefore the only use for this new "standard" is for > political reasons - not technical reasons. MS will try to claim that > they have an International standard that can be used where a government > is decreeing that only "standards based" products can be used. However, > they don't have a product that can implement the standard as written, > and likely never will. Soooo they might get past that acceptance phase > of the political process. But very quickly they will fail the > implementation phase and they will have only lost trust with the > decision makers. > > So, the original question still stands. As a developer - why do I care > about this so called "standard"??? > > (I do realize this is ignoring all the politics involved, and the > troubles for programmers that such politics will entail...) > > some related links: > http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080331144223128 > http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=2008033111470 >0984 http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080401133818372 > > My thoughts. > > Shawn > > Gustin Johnson wrote: > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > > Hash: SHA1 > > > > RIP ISO. It was good knowing you. > > > > http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/microsofts-great-besmirching > > > > Robert Lewko wrote: > > | Yeah, and to do it they had to make a farce out of the ISO committee!!! > > | > > | On Tue, Apr 1, 2008 at 3:00 PM, Neil Bower <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > |> http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/04/01/tech-openxml.html?ref=rs > > |>s > > |> > > |> _______________________________________________ > > |> clug-talk mailing list > > |> [email protected] > > |> http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > > |> Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > > |> **Please remove these lines when replying > > | > > | _______________________________________________ > > | clug-talk mailing list > > | [email protected] > > | http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > > | Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > > | **Please remove these lines when replying > > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- > > Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) > > Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org > > > > iD8DBQFH8q5+wRXgH3rKGfMRAj8SAJ4+BkwGWyCx4mI2cQ3/ZIAf3O9qJQCcCY2U > > 43rs4lCJPGtypA0F7iMt1VE= > > =4E3v > > -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- > > > > _______________________________________________ > > clug-talk mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > > **Please remove these lines when replying > > _______________________________________________ > clug-talk mailing list > [email protected] > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > **Please remove these lines when replying
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