RE: [libreoffice-users] Re: Re: LibreOffice 4.0

The precise situation is as follows:

 Office 2007 (SP2 I think) through Office 2013 *all* accept and produce
OOXML Transitional.  This is also true of the compatibility pack that
provides OOXML support in Office 2003.  These products also have
compatibility modes that will preserve compatibility (unless changed at user
option) of edited documents that originated from down-level versions.  The
OOXML format has this kind of support available as part of special
compatibility and extension provisions.  (There are similar provisions in
the Office 97-2000 format and RTF, but the technique is more refined in
OOXML.)

Office 2010 and Office 2013 *also* accept OOXML Strict.  These are the first
versions that can accept Strict.  They are the first versions produced after
Strict was fully specified.  (There was a major change in Strict at the ISO
level and I don't know how that has been smoothed over between Office 2010
and 2013.)

Office 2013 is the first version that can *produce* OOXML Strict.  The
default is still OOXML Transitional.  One has to specifically request Strict
in the Save As dialog, at least on my installation of Office 2013 Preview.
I don't know when the default will ever flip over and I haven't checked for
configuration options that change the default preference.

This is all done to smooth the readiness and preparation for migration to
Strict.  It was not Microsoft's idea to create such a hard line in the sand.
It came from the ISO/IEC committee that is maintaining the OOXML
specification and from the ballot resolution meeting that had OOXML approved
as an International Standard.  The Transitional OOXML support in Office 2007
and back to Office 2003 (by compatibility pack) was all done based on the
original ECMA standard, which had no Strict separation.

What is being done to smooth the transition makes perfect sense to me.
Presumably the people who want to use strict understand that there is no
down-level compatibility, and strict will not happen by accidental default.


This consideration of migration and up-/down-level preservation would be an
useful lesson for actions taken on the ODF TC and in OpenOffice-legacy
implementations that provide breaking changes to default behavior.  There
are more of those on their way.  The sudden change of Save As Password to
use different encryption methods not known down-level was just a first
taste.  Breaking changes with regard to SVG compatibility will be more
noticeable.  And the new change-tracking that may emerge in ODF 1.3 will go
farther still.

 - Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: webmaster-Kracked_P_P [mailto:webmaster@krackedpress.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2013 06:57
To: users@global.libreoffice.org
Subject: Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: Re: LibreOffice 4.0


Many months ago, there was a notification that MSO2013 changed their XML 
formatting from a "loose" to a "strict" version of the format.  I do not 
remember the exact wording but they stated that MSO2010 may not read 
MSO2013 files correctly.  So that makes 3 releases of MSO on Windows 
that are not compatible with MS's own XML based formats.  EVERY time 
they release a new version, since 2007, they require the user to buy the 
new version to be compatible.  They there is the big hike in buying 
their office suite, since renting will give MS more income from the same 
user. You get a lower up-front cost but a higher total cost when you 
rent MSO.  All this incompatibility is just a scheme to increase their 
income.
[ ... ]


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