Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: LO compatibility

Hi :)
E-letter's post was somewhat confusing.  ODF 1.2 is used by many
programs and suites and is implemented almost identically in all of
them.

You can even post bug-reports in the various programs and suites if
you do find any difference between implementation and written
specification.  Errr, except that posting bug-reports against MS
products is not so easy.


LibreOffice does use the ODF 1.2 and that did become an ISO standard a
couple of years ago.  I'm sure we celebrated it on this mailing list.
It's the "ODF 1.2 (extended)" that is still being developed by OASIS
and is not yet an ISO standard.  Apparently that is part of the new
standard, presumably due to be called the 1.3 when it gets far enough
in it's development process.

OASIS is an organisation made from representatives from several
hundred different organisations.  Each organisation involved is
limited to only having fair representation equal to all other
organisations involved.  So, no single organisation can have too much
power or control over OASIS.  It's not the type of organisation that
allows a single company's reps to become chair-persons of several
sub-committees and/or then manipulate meetings to push their own
agenda through!


Files using a newer version of ODF can be successfully opened in
programs and suites that only use the older versions of the standard
but will just be missing some of the functionality.  Files using an
older version of ODF can open just fine in programs and suites using
the newer standard.  So it's very different from MS's OOXML (such as
DocX, XlsX, PptX etc) in both directions!  This is another reason why
ODF is already rapidly increasing in popularity for longer-term
storage of documents.


If you go to
Tools - Options - "Save/Load"
Then you will see you can change the default format down from
ODF 1.2 (extended)
to
ODF 1.2
or
ODF 1.1/1.0


You can also choose to set the default format to MS formats although
we generally recommend agaisnt doing that.  If you do go for it then
please use the older MS format because it's more stable across a wider
range of programs and suites whereas OOXML can sometimes be fussy
about which version of MS Office it needs to be viewed in.


However, as e-letter pointed out, the problems of incompatibility are
almost entirely due to MS's apparent inability to implement their own
or anyone else's formats.  All other suites and programs can happily
share files with each other in almost any format.
Regards from
Tom :)



On 15 March 2014 15:58, Jim Seymour <jseymour@linxnet.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 15 Mar 2014 08:32:27 -0700 (PDT)
> Pedro <pedlino@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Hi Jim, all
> >
> >
> > Jim Seymour wrote
> > > I read that as "compatible with the ODF standard, as implemented
> > > in LO."  I.e.: LO uses the ODF standard.  Does MS Office?
> > >
> > > Did I read that wrong?  Or does LO not properly implement the ODF
> > > standard?
> >
> > As Italo mentioned LO is backwards compatible with all ODF
> > specifications. But since LO is pushing the ODF file format, the
> > current LO implementation is more advanced than the current
> > approved OASIS standard (e.g. LO supports font embedding)
>
> No offense intended, but that's weasel-word way of saying LO is
> non-standard.
>
> > So it's not a case that LO is not implementing the existing ODF
> > standards but that it is already improving on them (in an open
> > manner, unlike MS XML). So OASIS has to catch up :)
>
> OASIS establishes the standards, no?  If such is the case: What
> you've written, above, is what we call "putting the cart before the
> horse."  And that's putting the best possible light on it.
>
> To be clear: I have no problem with LO implementing non-standard
> behaviour, but that behaviour *must* be optional, with the switches
> that enable it clearly noted as such.
>
> > Hope this makes it clear ;)
>
> Disappointingly so, if I understood correctly what you wrote, and if
> what you wrote is accurate.
>
> But perhaps I've misunderstood?  In which case: Disregard my
> criticisms.
>
> Regards,
> Jim
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