[Libreoffice] ODF 1.2 and extended

[Cesare Leonardi]

On 14/02/2011 15:22, Thorsten Behrens wrote:
> ODF 1.1 was approved more than four years ago, and 1.2 is
> still not done - this is something that just won't fly. LibO uses
> ODF as its native file format, so there's really no other way to
> save new features.

Hi Thorsten and thank you for your detailed reply.

I thought that 1.2 was the latest approved standard and 1.2 extended was 
a sort of 1.3beta. I didn't know that the latest final ODF version was 
1.1. I guessed it from:
Options -> Load/Save -> General -> ODF format version
It talks about 1.2 not 1.2 draft.

However i understand your point but i agree in part with that.
The risk that i see is to produce documents that are always some step 
ahead from the standard and so... not standard. Third party programs 
that wants to manipulate ODF can have problems with LibreOffice, if they 
(reasonably) choose to follow only the last final version.
And what if Oracle and LibreOffice diverge in the view on the next ODF 
implementation? I see potentially interoperatibility problems for users 
and an obstacle for the spread of ODF.

As a user i'd want a stable and long term file format, not one that 
change often and without clear evidence of that.

> ODF 1.2 extended is indeed a moving target. If you want to avoid
> surprises in a mixed environment - either strictly limit the way
> users can generate documents (i.e. prevent macros, funny fonts,
> "formatting by spaces" etc), or use exactly one version of exactly
> one program (we happily recommend LibO, of course). :)

At this point both ODF 1.2 and 1.2 extended are a moving target, if i 
have understood correctly...
However the idea of using a single version of LibreOffice for everyone 
is non so simple and not so easy to maintain. It happens that some users 
encounter a bug that is known to be resolved in the next version or that 
a useful feature is implemented starting with a specific version, but 
other users cannot migrate for various reason. Or that after migrating 
all your user you discover that some of them use a feature that cause 
unexpectedly crash, so you have to downgrade.
These are real example from my workplace, where i have most department 
stuck with go-oo 2.4.1 (for different reason), someone with OOo 3.1.1 
and someone who are experimenting LibO 3.3.0.

Ciao.

Cesare.