ODF - about a log in the eye
You know, recently I was somewhat surprised by the hype about Microsoft's OOXML. I don’t want to discuss now the reason for what Microsoft is doing, but, as a programmer with ten years of experience, and also, as a person with some experience in the field of management, I would like to express my opinion.
Of course, it does not pretend to be complete judgment, it does not claim to be 100% correct. As usual, just an opinion.
Today, the main source of criticism of OOXML is the NoOXML community. Under the link you can read about why OOXML is bad, but there are many interesting things there. Many attacks on OOXML are essentially attacks on Microsoft products. Example No. 1 , Example No. 2 (at the end of the page) .
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However, I want to get rid of Microsoft protection in this matter. Let's try to see if ODF is so good? Or is it perfect, and therefore Microsoft is absolutely evil when trying to adopt its OOXML?
Do you often use formulas in Excel? I've been almost constantly. And in ODF there is no single mechanism for presenting formulas. That is, a person from KOffice writes a formula, it may not be processed at all when opened in OpenOffice.
The cause of this problem is easy to understand - the processing of formulas by different programs requires the “synchronization” of certain pieces of code, that is, this is no longer a format problem, but an application problem. Lars Oppermann, a spokesman for Sun Microsystems, said the following about this: “Although such a thing [as a formula support] could be very useful to our users, we do not think that its performance is possible within the current specification.”
Of course, the lack of support for formulas is a problem. And they could not have approached it, having developed OpenFormula, but there is one thing: it’s still a draft, and it doesn’t have ISO standardization.
As a result, today we have the following: in the ODF standard that has passed ISO standardization, there are no formulas. ODF 1.2 can solve the problem, but not yet.
To whom as, and I often use tables in presentations. I have to prepare slides for learning the basics of network technologies and it is very convenient for me to present the format of network frames in the form of tables. They are not in ODF.
Again, ODF 1.2 can solve the problem, but not yet. They write.
Again, the main plus of Microsoft Office for many is the presence of standardized macros. Of course, I do not deny that this can cause problems with viruses, but you can use signed macros, and this problem disappears by itself. And the importance of macros per se, I hope no one will deny?
At one time, I had to write more than one dozen macros when the question arose of transferring a large amount of data from text documents to Excel, processing and checking for correctness of macros and subsequent uploading further.
So, ODF does not contain them at all. Hello?
Java applets can be embedded in any ODF document. This, of course, is great, considering that back in 2006, Sun Microsystems released Java under the GPL. However, it turns out that for full support of ODF I need to drag Java along with me?
Sun Microsystems holds patents for certain "parts" of ODF. But, of course, today Sun allows the use of ODF for free, but hey, I don’t want that permission. I want consistency in principle. And not a withdrawal of this statement later or something else.
ODF crones assure that ODF is cool. I believe, I totally agree with them! But for me, as a person working with a computer as a tool, ODF is not enough. I know they will, will be, but for today, at the end of 2007 they are not.
As a result, summing up, I would like to ask OOXML haters to lower the flag a bit, so a little lower. In place of Microsoft, I, as a developer, would do the same. If the format that exists does not suit me (and cannot fully unlock the potential of the opportunities offered by me), I make my own.
Like Sun, Microsoft holds patents on certain parts of OOXML. So what of that?
Therefore, while the opposition seems far-fetched to me. If ODF 1.2 were adopted as an ISO standard, I myself would be ready to throw a stone at Microsoft.
With love,
maniaque
Of course, it does not pretend to be complete judgment, it does not claim to be 100% correct. As usual, just an opinion.
Today, the main source of criticism of OOXML is the NoOXML community. Under the link you can read about why OOXML is bad, but there are many interesting things there. Many attacks on OOXML are essentially attacks on Microsoft products. Example No. 1 , Example No. 2 (at the end of the page) .
')
However, I want to get rid of Microsoft protection in this matter. Let's try to see if ODF is so good? Or is it perfect, and therefore Microsoft is absolutely evil when trying to adopt its OOXML?
1. Formulas
Do you often use formulas in Excel? I've been almost constantly. And in ODF there is no single mechanism for presenting formulas. That is, a person from KOffice writes a formula, it may not be processed at all when opened in OpenOffice.
The cause of this problem is easy to understand - the processing of formulas by different programs requires the “synchronization” of certain pieces of code, that is, this is no longer a format problem, but an application problem. Lars Oppermann, a spokesman for Sun Microsystems, said the following about this: “Although such a thing [as a formula support] could be very useful to our users, we do not think that its performance is possible within the current specification.”
If someone has questions, why do I provide comments from Sun developers, then it should be remembered that Sun was (and is) the main participant in the development of ODF
Of course, the lack of support for formulas is a problem. And they could not have approached it, having developed OpenFormula, but there is one thing: it’s still a draft, and it doesn’t have ISO standardization.
As a result, today we have the following: in the ODF standard that has passed ISO standardization, there are no formulas. ODF 1.2 can solve the problem, but not yet.
2. Presentations with tables are canceled.
To whom as, and I often use tables in presentations. I have to prepare slides for learning the basics of network technologies and it is very convenient for me to present the format of network frames in the form of tables. They are not in ODF.
Again, ODF 1.2 can solve the problem, but not yet. They write.
3. No macros!
Again, the main plus of Microsoft Office for many is the presence of standardized macros. Of course, I do not deny that this can cause problems with viruses, but you can use signed macros, and this problem disappears by itself. And the importance of macros per se, I hope no one will deny?
At one time, I had to write more than one dozen macros when the question arose of transferring a large amount of data from text documents to Excel, processing and checking for correctness of macros and subsequent uploading further.
So, ODF does not contain them at all. Hello?
4. Java
Java applets can be embedded in any ODF document. This, of course, is great, considering that back in 2006, Sun Microsystems released Java under the GPL. However, it turns out that for full support of ODF I need to drag Java along with me?
5. Patents?
Sun Microsystems holds patents for certain "parts" of ODF. But, of course, today Sun allows the use of ODF for free, but hey, I don’t want that permission. I want consistency in principle. And not a withdrawal of this statement later or something else.
And what is the result?
ODF crones assure that ODF is cool. I believe, I totally agree with them! But for me, as a person working with a computer as a tool, ODF is not enough. I know they will, will be, but for today, at the end of 2007 they are not.
As a result, summing up, I would like to ask OOXML haters to lower the flag a bit, so a little lower. In place of Microsoft, I, as a developer, would do the same. If the format that exists does not suit me (and cannot fully unlock the potential of the opportunities offered by me), I make my own.
Like Sun, Microsoft holds patents on certain parts of OOXML. So what of that?
Therefore, while the opposition seems far-fetched to me. If ODF 1.2 were adopted as an ISO standard, I myself would be ready to throw a stone at Microsoft.
With love,
maniaque
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/17428/
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