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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: [RFC] Unified pictures in file format (KWord/KPresenter)
From:       David Faure <david () mandrakesoft ! com>
Date:       2002-06-13 13:24:10
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On Thursday 13 June 2002 14:18, Nicolas Goutte wrote:
> On Wednesday 12 June 2002 12:28, David Faure wrote:
> Yes, KWord's file formats has problems. But we will not get rid of the KOffice 
> 1.2 format that soon.

Right.

> > * The file format will very probably change after KOffice-1.2.
> > The idea would be to adopt a common file format for all opensource office
> > suites. Given the work OpenOffice has done in that direction, its file
> > format would be a good starting point for that, but work is needed to
> > create a real standard, that would also incorporate any features that KWord
> > has and OO doesn't have, plus any features that other suites have, plus
> > future features, etc. ;)
> > This is the idea that we discussed at LinuxTag (the German governement is
> > doing a study on this and is apparently willing to help the development
> > afterwards).
> 
> Well, sorry!  However, I am surprised about this new position, which differ 
> much from what was written the last time to the Office Standard mailing list.

Well, nothing is decided yet, and I have the right to change my mind on something,
that doesn't mean I'll force my opinion on others. I just mentionned that this
_MIGHT_ happen. The main reason we didn't do this yet is lack of manpower.
If we receive help, as in: manpower, don't you think it would be a really GREAT
thing for the future of office suites, for users, for Linux etc. if we could establish
a common file format for all office suites (opensource ones at first, maybe commercial
ones might then join?).

> However, we are always talking about word processors. I have never seen 
> anything about KPresenter.

Right. The focus of this "possible unification" is on Word Processors up to now.

> My idea was not beautifying the format. My idea was that on that point 
> KWord/KPresenter 1.3's file format would work for the 1.2 version too.

Ok then.

> Switching to a total new format can be long, as the filters need to be changed 
> too. As the manpower for writing KWord filters is well below the one for 
> KWord, I wonder how we will be able to do it. (If you are wondering about 
> what I am telling, just look at the KWord's RTF export filter. Half of the 
> filter is not working because it still wants files in KWord 1.1 format!)

This is a very good point, I'll keep it in mind in future discussions about a file
format switch. Note that a common native file format means that the 3 projects
can completely unite the efforts on writing the filters though, which means 3 times
more manpower.

-- 
David FAURE, david@mandrakesoft.com, faure@kde.org
http://people.mandrakesoft.com/~david/
Contributing to: http://www.konqueror.org/, http://www.koffice.org/
LinuxTag was fun: polar bears, bad movies, live hacking, late hacking, bed sharing, Fahrplan.

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