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Docvert 3.0 Lessens Reliance On Microsoft Office
An anonymous reader writes "After 10 months of development Docvert 3.0 was released today. This open source web service converts DOC files to Oasis OpenDocument 1.0, and then to HTML, RSS, or any XML format. Try the ODF demo or download the source and install it on your own box. Version 3.0 comes with an MS Word Plugin, FTP/WebDAV upload, and an in-browser document editor."
That Andy Updegrove, who runs a law firm that works for IBM (which has a massive vested interest in making sure that there is one and only one XML word processing format (ODF)) would submit a story to /. pointing out his own article that is critical of Microsoft's XML word processing format.
Amazing. Who would have thought of something like that.
...whether ISO has simply become a dumping ground for people simply wanting to market their stuff as standards (ECMA), or a real standards body.
You mean like how ISO rubberstamped the half-spec for ODF that OASIS submitted? You don't even have spreadsheet formulas spec'ed for crying out loud! OO.o is the "reference" implementation. Whenever anyone implements ODF and runs into a wall because the spec isn't fully spec'ed, they say, "Just do whatever OO.o does". Some spec. It's a spec based on and written for OO.o, indeed it's derived from OO.o's previous XML format. And OO.o writes lots of stuff in its documents that are NOT in the spec (spreadsheet formulas being the most well known example).
ISO rubberstamped ODF with no revisions, no critiques, or any opposition (despite MS being one of the committee members for the ISO rubberstamping; MS raised no objections, quite apart from IBM crying like a baby and getting outvoted 20 to 1 at the ECMA ratification of OOXML).
And the ECMA process for OOXML was far more rigorous than ISO's rubberstamping of ODF. The ECMA process took over a year, with various revisions. And the parties involved included governments, tech companies (e.g. Apple and Novell), and businesses. The issues that IBM is whining about were raised during that process (Novell themselves (which, I know you guys despise now) raised many of the same issues), and they were dealt with. There were some issues for which doing the so-called "right" thing would have been counter productive as those cases are exremely rare (much more rare than creating spreadsheets with formulas, which OASIS didn't bother to spec for ODF). Others were dealt with the "right" way.
Pragmatism has its place. THat's something you guys can't seem to get thru your thick skulls. And your double-standards and hypocrisy are beyond belief. "Don't complain about the spec in your brother's eye while ignoring the log in your own."
And you guys are now running around trying to convince governments to mandate exclusive use of ODF, even when the ODF spec doesn't cover everything that OO.o does, let alone MS Office. And one of the reasons for the latter, is that by mandating exclusive use of a format that doesn't cover MS Office's features, you automatically make those features irrelevant since they couldn't be used, therefore evening the playing field wrt features, not by OO.o catching up, but by government fiat! You guys are too much!
-- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000