Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Linux and Standards
From: Joe Hartley (jh_AT_brainiac.com)
Date: Tue Nov 02 2004 - 19:52:13 EET
On Tue, 2 Nov 2004 09:20:46 -0800
Mark Knecht <markknecht_AT_gmail.com> wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Nov 2004 16:27:16 +0000, Anahata <anahata_AT_treewind.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > To suggest an open source program might change to something that breaks
> > your system overnight is bad publicity that fits right in with common
> > misconceptions about OSS. And it just isn't true: in the real world,
> > proprietary software does that much more. (MS Office file formats?)
> >
> > --
> > Anahata
>
> How did M$'s proprietary Office file formats every break anyone's
> system overnight? I'm not saying I like M$. I just don't understad
> your comment. They are a closed standard, but they appear to be a
> standard none the less.
Every time a new version of M$ Office is released, it uses new file
formats that are not backward compatible with older versions of Office.
It's very, very commonplace after a release of Office to run into the
situation where a Word file is emailed to someone still on a previous
version, and confusion ensues because the recipient can't open it.
It's possible to save a document in an older version of the Word format,
but there are (still!) a great many users who are unfamiliar with how to
do that.
Microsoft would have us believe that there are important things that
would be lost when saving as an older version, but in all my years as
a SysAdmin, I can't recall a case where anything noticable has been lost.
There was much talk last year about M$ moving towards using XML for
saving documents, but unfortunately, it strips XML files of all
presentation and formatting information when saving them in the XML file
format. It does not do this when saving files in Microsoft's proprietary
file formats. (http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/2109101)
I know file formats are a moving target, but done correctly, there's a
migration path. As an example, at one point in its development, there was
a change in the format of Ardour's session file. You couldn't open older
sessions in the newer format. Fortunately, it was rather easy to write
a perl script to migrate the files, and I did just that.
I would argue that their file formats are not a standard. Standards
to me are published guidelines to allow 2 things to interoperate correctly.
They may or may not have example implementations, but the specifications
are there to be used and adhered to.
If I'm building a hardware device to communicate with a computer, I
may choose to use a serial communication link to have my device 'talk'
to a computer. The RS232 standard ensures I can build my device and
write my drivers in such a way as to ensure that the link will work.
No such interoperability exists with regards to a Word document's
format.
--
======================================================================
Joe Hartley - UNIX/network Consultant - jh_AT_brainiac.com
Without deviation from the norm, "progress" is not possible. - FZappa
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