Neither PDF nor ODF were initially designed by a global consortium like OASIS. PDF and PostScript have obvious origins, as does ODF in a proposal from Sun and its contribution the XML version of a pre-ODF version of OpenOffice.org (and as does OOXML in a proposal to ECMA International from Microsoft).
My friends at AIIM International and the various ISO Committees that have nurtured the International Standards for PDF formats may feel rather hurt that their efforts to produce a set of international, interoperable PDF standards is being besmirched in this manner. (My friends who work on the international standard for OOXML have learned to have thick skins.) If you think about it, most of the standards that we have now in Information Technology started because someone built something useful and it attracted enough interested attention (and a willing contributor) to evolve into a formal standard. Sometimes standards activities form in order to solve a problem in interoperability. ASCII emerged that way and now look at where we are today with Unicode, something that was not dreamed of when characters were begrudgingly granted 6 bits of precious memory space. It is early days yet for ODF. Adobe promised its hardware customers interoperability and fidelity. The specifications for Postscript were quite rigorous as are those for its derivative, PDF, for which there is also a serious interoperability and fidelity promise. This made their uptake into international standards and subsequent maintenance relatively easy. ODF is not so simple. - Dennis -----Original Message----- From: timofonic timofonic [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 06:38 To: [email protected] Subject: OpenDocument accurate representation file format? Re: [tdf-discuss] New "LibreOffice Reader" Eliminates Need for "PDF Reader" Anyway, I don´t consider PDF a proper "OPEN" standard, as it´s not designed by a global consortium like OASIS. What about designing a new file format for this purpose and being part of OpenDocument? Some people said DjVu being accurate but lacking some features (vectorial image support?). I'm not a developer at all, but I think OpenDocument format family should evolve in this direction some day. PDF-based ISO standard follows a lying way similar to Mono and .NET: the open standard lags behind the official implementation. This is a very dangerous trap that is still giving too much advantages to Adobe over competitors. On Sun, Jun 26, 2011 at 1:07 PM, Ian Lynch <[email protected]> wrote: > On 26 June 2011 01:15, Sean White <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I dont thinks thats normal somehow, i have been using Adobe Reader for >> years >> and have NEVER had it come past 200MB. >> > > ISTR a whole load of adverising crap in one large Acrobat download. > > Back to discussion, what's with all the PDF hate. > > > Not hate, irritation by misuse. Hundreds of files to download that could > simply be in HTML pages (as Alexandro indicated). We get stuff originated in > whatever app and distributed in pdf format when it will never ever get > printed. In fact mostly you can produce a pdf from a web page if you really > need to anyway. I have 100 page application forms from the EU in Acrobat > that need huge hardware resources just to be usable. This stuff should be in > client server databases operated through web browsers not desktop pdf files. > I accept all this as transition noise as we move to mobile technologies and > the web. pdf was not originally designed for these purposes, it was designed > for systems putting the information on to paper and has been extended and > bloated accordingly. Arguably, rather like Office applications ;-). > > It serves a very good >> purpose a standard, editable document that shows up exactly how you want it >> WHEREVER you are and whatever OS you are using. > > > Not disputing that. If you want distribute a document accurately for > printing on paper, use pdf. > > >> this has always been its >> use and so it falls in a different document category to ODF. ODF is an >> office format created to compete with MSO's doc, xls an ppt formats. to >> essentially modify the underlying purpose to make it behave more like a PDF >> would waste most of what we have put into it. >> > > I agree, so let's look at the future and that is the web and mobile > tecnologies. How do we get LibO to the web? That would be a far better > priority for the use of resources. > > -- > Ian > > Ofqual Accredited IT Qualifications (The Schools ITQ) > > www.theINGOTs.org +44 (0)1827 305940 > > The Learning Machine Limited, Reg Office, 36 Ashby Road, Tamworth, > Staffordshire, B79 8AQ. Reg No: 05560797, Registered in England and > Wales. > > -- > Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] > Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette > List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ > All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted > > -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
