We are on the 14 th of May and OOXML is an ISO standard. Slight problem: there is no known specification or definitive draft of that ISO standard. To be sure, we know what the first version of Ecma 376 looks like, and we know it pretty well, although it’s …
The fact is, nobody outside the Ecma and probably ISO knows how OOXML looks like now. It is particularly cumbersome, not so much because that could amount to one more irregularity against the JTC1’s SC 34, but also because it creates yet one more precedent in the long story of …
At the time this post is being written, there is still no news of the final version of Ecma 376/DIS-ISO 29500, aka OOXML. I guess we’ll have to wait until midnight, today, Geneva time to have it. Yet some also claim that the deadline was midnight yesterday on the First …
As the deadline of the 2 nd of May is drawing near, I thought it useful to clarify some of the actual concerns surrounding the standardization of OOXML. Perhaps this piece will help dispelling some myths. So what is going on , and what is left to be done before …
Ah, I see you were expecting me to comment on the olympic catastrophy induced by the race for the flame around the world. No. Today I am going to tell you about a protest that has taken place in Norway at the occasion of the ISO SC34 meeting, where odd …
I shall not complain that much about what happened with OOXML. In fact, the act of standardizing OOXML has not really brought any significant advantages to OOXML. ODF is an ISO standard and so is OOXML. That’s what I call a draw, and Microsoft has been battling hard for a …
It is now certain that OOXML has been approved by the national standards organizations. France finally abstained after an interesting last minute intervention by Microsoft. Odd things happened and the final announcement by the Afnor today would have been a farce if it had not been official. It is always …
Today the Easter Bunny (that means me on this blog), who’s very early because it’s Good Friday but also the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad and the first day of Spring, is bringing you some links for you to read this week-end. – Rick Jelliffe gets a cold shower by …
In the course of the last two days, two major aspects of the OOXML standardization efforts have been revisited by renowned experts. Unfortunately, what sounded like gestures of goodwill by Microsoft is being seriously challenged on a legal and technical point of view. The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), the …