Re: Alternative formats for IDs

["william(at)elan.net" <william at elan.net>]

On Thu, 5 Jan 2006, Scott Kitterman wrote:

> As I understand it, one of the major concerns of the people pushing for
> alternative formats is a desire to be able to include drawings and diagrams
> with something other than ASCII art.
>
> I don't believe that XML does much to help that.

It does in the same way HTML does i.e. you can create separate drawing
as jpg or png and include it in the document along with information as
to how it would fit in that document. That means that if we use XML as
publication or submission format, then data submitted for one draft/rfc
can be more then just document itself (probably some rfc editor tools
would need to be modified to take care of managing this too).

In general it is a good idea to keep just document (i.e. it includes
embedded pictures) for at least publication as official standard so
I believe most appropriate is indeed to support PDF/A as official
publication format but keep the source (XML & pictures) available for
those who need it as well.

> If one is worried about things like including pictures, diagrams, revision
> marks, etc. then I think looking into something like Open Document Format
> would make a lot more sense than considering a proprietary format like MS
> Word.

You probably missed it, but I did in fact say in my earlier post that if
we do want to consider direct "editor" format,then only good choice would 
be opendoc. The problem is that it is still relatively new and not enough
programs and tools are available that support it on all platforms (but it
is already supported in more systems then MS Word can!). That will surely 
change in the next few years if the format proves itself.

Ultimately what I believe will happen is that there would be free (and
commercial) tools to convert from MSWord XML (if that format stabilizes) 
to OpenDoc and back without any loss (at least as far as document text
and its presentation) and so this means that those who want to use Word 
will be able to do it easily.

--
William Leibzon
Elan Networks
william at elan.net

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