Office applications Toolkit

Story: Google: OOXML 'insufficient and unnecessary'

Posted by: garyedwards (Friday 29 February 2008, 11:43 PM)

Undocumented eXtensions and Standards

As marbux pointed out, ODF and OOXML specifications allow for what might as well be unlimited use of undocumented eXtensions. This is indeed good for market leading applications use to competing on the basis of innovative feature sets.

It's not however good for standards!!

The interoperability we expect from an open standard is instead limited to application specific document exchange. And soon enough we come to realize that nothings changed, we have artificially limited application choices, and it's pretty much back to 1995 where everyone in your circle has to be running the same application if you intend on exchanging documents.

Meaning, the vendors win again.

Interoperability and the fluid interchange of documents is the sole purpose of a format standard. For the sake of interoperability, application specific innovation must be limited to defined and well documented subsets, useful to all applications within the range where feature sets are agreed on.

Profiles is an excellent way of accommodating ranges of application feature sets, but they must be well defined and openly shared. This of course is the antithesis of application innovation as a competitive market differential. Allowing for undocumented eXtensions in a specification is how vendors sneak darkly advantageous marketshare and application feature set differentials into the bright cover of an open standard.

At the end of the day one has to notice that both ODF and OOXML lack an interoperability framework capable of reigning in application specific innovation. This defeats the whole purpose of standardization.

Arguing that this zero interop - max innovation effect isn't by design or vendor intent becomes more difficult with each passing day. Once you get ISO/IEC to buy into the trick though, getting them to compromise on their interoperability requirements looks to be fairly easy.

No doubt in my mind that Microsoft is grateful that once an unlimited undocumented eXtension loaded ODF opened the door at ISO/IEC, no one would know how to slam it shut. Tragic consequences.

~ge~

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