[Scribus] OASIS XML file format working group

James Treleaven jametrel
Wed Oct 29 04:53:16 CET 2003


Hello All,

I have been going through the Scribus mailing list archives but I have
not seen any discussion of the OASIS effort to come up with an XML based
standard for "office" files.

(see http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/charter.php)

Now I know that Scribus is a DTP program not a lowly word processor, but
I think that the OASIS effort should be exciting to the entire open
source community.  Microsoft can trace most of its power over the
software industry back to the fact that its office file formats are the
lingua franca of the business world.  Many people who would like to
ditch Windows/MSOffice are discouraged by the office file format lock-in.

A successful standardization effort from OASIS could serve as the basis
of an ISO, CEN, and/or DIN standard.  This in turn could be embraced by
governments and companies all over the world - allowing users to be
freed from proprietary lock-in so that they can choose the best software
for whatever they wish to accomplish.

So, if I may be so brash to ask, have any Scribus developers considered
joining the OASIS technical committee - just to keep an eye on the
evolving standard and to make sure that the standard is not needlessly
incompatible Scribus?

respectfully,
James










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