Damn reply-to headers.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Faure 
> Sent: Friday, November 26, 1999 4:34 PM
> To: 'dep@snet.net'
> Subject: RE: M$ Word filter? And more standard formats
> 
> 
> > On Fri, 26 Nov 1999, David Faure wrote:
> > 
> > |
> > |http://koffice.kde.org/faq/faq-5.html#ss5.3
> > |
> > |"5.3 What data format does KOffice read and write natively?"
> > 
> > please forgive what may be a tremendously naive question: from the
> > answer given, i get the sense trhat it would be possible to extend
> > koffice's "understanding" of XML, which is to say give it new tags,
> > so that in the example given one could in fact with a small 
> amount of
> > modification and configuration make koffice read and write the
> > framemaker document transparently. is this an oversimplfication?
> 
> The answer to your question is in 5.4, just a few lines below.
> 
> "No, unfortunately not; you still need a filter. Think of XML 
> as a very 
> base, general markup language which allows you to "create 
> your own markup 
> language". So it's more precise to say, the KOffice 
> applications use a 
> file format thats based on XML. The XML code Framemaker can 
> write to is 
> a different file format based on XML. Nevertheless, the usage 
> of XML is 
> going to make it easier to develop import filters."
> 
> The section 5.3 talks about KOffice's use of XML, not about 
> FrameMaker's.
> Re-read 5.4 : XML is a META-language.
> 
> It's like saying "all c++ programs use objects so they should be able
> to natively understand one another". That's obviously wrong, 
> and it's the same
> thing with XML. XML is a text-form of objects. The whole 
> difference between KWord
> and FrameMaker is which objects they use to represent their 
> data, and you easily
> see that it can be very very different internally.
> So it's not as easy as you suggest, but it's still feasible, 
> and that's called a 
> filter.
> 
> 
> --
> David Faure
> faure@kde.org - KDE developer
> david@mandrakesoft.com - Mandrake
> david.faure@cramersystems.com - Cramer Systems