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Study Says OOXML Unsuitable For Norwegian Government

Posted by kdawson on from the party-like-it's-1997 dept.

angry tapir writes "Microsoft's XML-based office document format, OOXML, does not meet the requirements for governmental use, according to a new report published by the Norwegian Agency for Public Management and eGovernment (DIFI). The agency wants to start a debate over the report as part of its work on standards in the Norwegian government. (As we discussed a week ago, Denmark has already decided to choose ODF over OOXML.)"

11 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Fredonia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    The government of Fredonia chooses .txt, ASCII, with \n line endings.

  2. What's in a name by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

    DIFI's[1] report was written by Hypatia, a Norwegian consultancy specializing in standardization and software accessibility.

    Strange, that the name of the consultancy is Hypatia. She, after all, was a mathematician-philosopher who ascribed to Plotinus's ideal... that empirical research is inherently flawed, and only logic and mathematics can achieve truth.

    I mean, there's a clear relationship here that I find very amusing. Microsoft's OOXML, while sure to be empirically more interoperable with most users due to the pervasity of Microsoft Office, is not logically more interoperable due to the nature of what MS has done to the "open" standard.

    Delicious allegory.

    [1] DIFI is the Norwegian Agency responsible for the decision.

    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    1. Re:What's in a name by willabr · · Score: 3, Funny

      Norway, hm..... How about Open Object Foundation Document Architecture (OOFDA)

    2. Re:What's in a name by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 4, Funny

      If users of MS Office share documents, that's not interoperability since they all use the same software family.

      Sure, OOXML works with both Country and Western!

    3. Re:What's in a name by gbjbaanb · · Score: 2, Funny

      Read both specs

      As the OOXML 'spec' is over 6000 pages, I don't think anyone has. Definitely not the ISO standards body for sure :)

    4. Re:What's in a name by harlows_monkeys · · Score: 2, Funny

      Lots of FUD there. Let's take one, truncateFontHeightsLikeWP6, and compare to how it is done in ODF.

      Let's say you have a bunch of WP6 documents. You have reverse engineered the WP6 format. You have tools that take documents in that format and do interesting things with them, like typeset them for the magazine you publish.

      You want to switch to using ODF in your workflow, and are writing a converter to convert WP6 documents to ODF. However, when you run across things in WP6 that just aren't representable in ODF, you want to somehow preserve them, so that (1) your converter can convert back to WP6 without losing anything, and (2) your internal tools recognize and format things correctly when using the ODF form of your converted docs.

      So what you are going to do is use one of the mechanisms ODF provides to embed information beyond the standard, and use this to embed the extra information. That way, your converted WP6 documents work fine for you, and if they are ever sent to someone else, the extra information will be ignored.

      Suppose that I have done a similar thing--my workflow also revolved around WP6 format, and I'm converting to ODF, with extra info for the WP6 that doesn't fit.

      Wouldn't it be nice if my ODF+WP6 documents could work with your workflow, and your ODF+WP6 documents would work with my workflow? But alas, we probably picked different ways to add the WP6 info--and even if we picked similar ways, we probably named things differently. Sucks, doesn't it?

      All truncateFontHeightsLikeWP6 and similar in OOXML were doing is trying to address that last part. Basically, what truncateFontHeightsLikeWP6 in OOXML is saying is "hey! anyone out there who has figured out WP6 font height stuff and is going to embed information about that in their OOXML document, use this name for it, so that you'll all be on the same page. Everyone else, ignore it".

  3. Re:Such a nicely chosen name for the standard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    BOOBS also combines OO and BBS. Whats your point?

  4. Re:Such a nicely chosen name for the standard... by JohnFluxx · · Score: 2, Funny

    Try to start a movement to call it Microsoft's OOXML. Or MooXML :-)

  5. Re:Such a nicely chosen name for the standard... by Trepidity · · Score: 2, Funny

    Thank you AC for your post, for I feel I've now understood something deep about the universe.

    --
    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  6. Re:Such a nicely chosen name for the standard... by Trails · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's not just Bing. You have to say BING!!! Like it's a bell. BING!!!

    Say it! Fuck you, you're fired!!!

  7. Re:Such a nicely chosen name for the standard... by Barsteward · · Score: 2, Funny

    yeah, but slashdotters have got more chance playing with ODF/OOXML than they have with BOOBS

    --
    "The hands that help are better far than lips that pray." - Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899)