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List:       koffice-devel
Subject:    Re: Article about OOo/KOffice/OASIS database
From:       Brad Hards <bhards () bigpond ! net ! au>
Date:       2004-07-10 4:50:35
Message-ID: 200407101450.38387.bhards () bigpond ! net ! au
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On Fri, 9 Jul 2004 21:38 pm, Marco Fioretti wrote:
> Why isn't SQLite a vendor neutral format? As far as MDB is concerned,
> it's just as bad as rtf. Convergence on anything that one single
> for profit company can change at will overnight is a waste of time.
> Please no. *If* all free SW applications can converge on the same
> open formats is much, much better.
As others have pointed out, SQLlite could form the basis for a neutral file 
format, but it will not be sufficient in-and-of-itself.

To demonstrate the point: Oasis uses XML and PNG wrapped in a zip file. A 
proprietary mind-mapping application I've been investigating (MindManager X5 
Pro) also uses XML and PNG wrapped in a zip file. That doesn't mean that an 
application that can read the Oasis format can read MindManager files (even 
though it can probably open the zip file and access the Document.xml 
file...).

What is important is that the semantics of the information in the file are 
agreed upon. So for a SQLlite file, we need to agree on how the reports are 
recorded, how the forms are represented and recorded, how the query is 
stored, and so on. I don't think we are there yet, but there might be a way 
forward through OASIS for some of the requirements, eg UIML 
(http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=uiml)


Brad
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