From the category archives:

ODF

Microsoft Office document corruption: Testing the OOXML claims

February 15, 2010

Summary
In this post I take a look at Microsoft’s claims for robust data recovery with their Office Open XML (OOXML) file format.  I show the results of an experiment, where I introduce random errors into documents and observe whether word processors can recover from these errors.  Based on these result, I estimate data recovery rates [...]

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ODF 1.2 Part 1 Public Review

January 25, 2010

A major milestone was reached for the OASIS ODF TC today.  The latest Committee Draft of ODF 1.2 Part 1 was sent out for a 60-day public review.
“What does this mean, and why should I care?” you might be asking.  That’s a fair question.
First, a quick review of the OASIS standards approval process.  The stages [...]

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The Relevancy of ODF 1.0

December 14, 2009

By the time you read this (actually probably by the time I finish writing this post) a ballot approving the Public Review Draft of ODF 1.2, Part 1 will have passed.  Part 1 is the largest of the three parts of ODF 1.2, and reaching a Public Review Draft status is a major accomplishment.  [...]

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ODF 1.2, Part 3 goes out for Public Review

November 16, 2009

A major milestone for ODF 1.2 was reached on Friday. Part 3 of ODF 1.2, which specifies document packaging (how a document’s XML, images and metadata are combined into a single file and are optionally encrypted or signed), went out for a 60-day public review period. This public review period will run [...]

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Protocols, Formats and the Limits of Disclosure

October 12, 2009

A few words today on an important distinction that deserves greater appreciation, since it lies at the heart of several current interoperability debates. What I relate here will be well-known to any engineer, though I think almost anyone can understand the gist of this.
First, let’s review the basics.
Formats define how information is encoded. [...]

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What’s New in ODF Maintenance?

September 17, 2009

Some Q&A, in the form of a self-interview. As with anything on this blog, these are my opinions.
Question: How are you doing today, Rob?
Rob: Very well thank you. I just finished attending a good set of working group (WG) meetings, and the Plenary meeting of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 in Seattle, Washington.
Question: Anything newsworthy [...]

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ODFDOM 0.7 Released

July 21, 2009

I’m pleased to report that the 0.7 release of the ODF Toolkit Union’s ODFDOM library has just been released. This is an open source (Apache 2.0 license) Java toolkit for programmatically reading, writing and manipulating ODF documents. The code is 100% Java and does not require that you have OpenOffice or any other [...]

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ODF Plugfest

June 26, 2009

Although the term may be alien to some, “plugfests” have been around for around 20 years. A plugfest is when implementors of the same interface get together and test the interoperability of their products. In the beginning this was done with wired standards, USB, etc. (thus ‘plug’). Over the years the term [...]

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ODF TC timeline

June 23, 2009

I used a variation of this chart at the recent ODF Plugfest in the Netherlands. But the aspect ratio of a presentation slide doesn’t suit this type of chart well, so here is a fuller version of what I showed there.
Those who are not familiar with standards development are sometimes amazed at how long [...]

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ODF Lies and Whispers

June 9, 2009

There is an interesting disinformation campaign being waged against ODF. You won’t see this FUD splattered across the front pages of blogs or press releases. It is the kind of stuff that is spread by email and whispers, and you or I rarely will see it in the light of day. But occasionally [...]

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