ggiedke 1205346748|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover
After summarizing the failures in the standardization process, R. Hillesley concludes with the failures of the proposed standard itself:
"//The most serious allegations against OOXML are that it is incomplete in its detail, contains internal and historic contradictions, and that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to implement on other platforms, which is the raison d'etre for any standard. The design, implementation, limitations and further development of OOXML are exclusive to Microsoft. Evidence has also been shown that there are demonstrable interoperability failures between Microsoft Office 2007 outputs, which derives from the only existing implementation of the ECMA 376 specification of OOXML, and the specification itself, which is damning evidence against the acceptance of the standard in the first place. These include undocumented non-XML data and XML tags in the Office 2007 outputs that do not appear in the ECMA 376 spcification.
The conventional view is that open standards are the only tenable way forward for the technology industries, where networking necessitates interoperability between a plethora of applications and technologies, unencumbered by patents or other proprietary interests, and it is difficult to see a justification for OOXML when there is a proven open standard that is widely adopted and fulfils these objectives//."
ggiedke, 1205346748|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover