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Subject: Re: [office-comment] Change Tracking issue
Bryce, Just a quick question about a very interesting proposal: I think change tracking is important when specifying a document format. True, change tracking may be implemented by a variety of means but having a common format that links those changes (however managed at the application level) to a document seems to me to be essential to a document format. And for most office applications, I suspect that "in document" models for change tracking probably hit the sweet spot for the average user. Having said that, I don't think that one size necessarily fits all and for enterprise authoring environments, I would like to see discussion of alternative proposals for management of change tracking. It could well be that the ODF format should have "in document" default change tracking and allow a declaration of another location/application for tracking of changes but using an ODF defined format. Hope you are having a great day! Patrick Bryce L Nordgren wrote: > At the risk of being unpopular, how about taking exactly the opposite > approach? Namely, transfer the responsibility for version control to an > application specifically designed for it, possibly deprecating and retiring > support for change-tracking-in-the-office-document? If users wish, they > can have much more comprehensive "change tracking" than currently offered > by any office suite, and it doesn't leave a record in the file itself. As > a bonus, most dedicated "change tracking" software (read: software > configuration management software) also supports distributed editing and > collaborative authorship in ways that no file format specification can. > Office document change tracking lags textfile change tracking by 20 years! > (Did MS word offer change tracking in 1988? VMS had file versioning back > then, and I also believe "ci myPaper.tex" would work. So would "co -r 1589 > myPaper.tex".) > > Here's the beauty part: if you need to have access to the document history, > you're going to need to authenticate yourself to the repository. Put > another way, employees get "working copies" containing only the current > version, but the sensitive IP surrounding how the "current version" evolves > is in a centralized repository which can be hardened. Again, _not_ the job > of a file format or an office application! Alternatively: give an IT > security officer the option of collecting sensitive information in one spot > or distributing it to everyone who gets a copy of a document which once > held something they shouldn't see (even if "responsible individuals" have > the option of encrypting it), what's he going to choose? Can you imagine > asking "vi" to handle authentication and private/public key encryption? > Let the office apps concentrate on formatting content, don't require them > to "safeguard" content! They just won't be very good at it. > > I'd like to see OpenDocument 1.2 define a "format" much like the packaged > JAR format, but implemented live on the filesystem. Under this format, a > directory of documents would be a directory of directories. Each document > directory would/should work exactly like the packaged Jarfile format (i.e., > if you send the entire directory to someone else, they can open your > document.) By no means should the Jar format be deprecated! But this live > filesystem alternative should be officially described by the standard (and > probably given a name). > > In short, ODF is a file format specification. Change tracking and > collaborative editing is not something that any file format specification > can really do well. Expose the component files, leverage the fact that > your document content is plain text, and any versioning system (many of > which have a decade or more of hard use under their belt) can start > tracking changes. Far from hamstringing office applications, they could > concentrate on supporting mature, capable, popular versioning systems, > graphically displaying "diffs", and managing "working directories". A > clever app could even hide the fact that the "Save" button also performs a > "commit" if a network interface is active. The only support required from > the file format is the definition of the "live filesystem document > package." > > W.r.t. encrypting document fragments: It is really the responsibility of > the server, the filesystem, and the operators thereof to control access. > If you have access to the file, you should be able to read whatever's in > the file. If it contains something you shouldn't see, you shouldn't have > access to it. (Or the entire file can be encrypted and unrecognizable to > the office app, to "unzip", and to "jar -x".) If partial access needs to > be given, OpenDocument already includes support for "linked" content: the > master document can link to an assortment of files and you "automatically" > can only see those which the server lets you see. > > Thx, > Bryce > > > This publicly archived list offers a means to provide input to the > OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) TC. > > In order to verify user consent to the Feedback License terms and > to minimize spam in the list archive, subscription is required > before posting. > > Subscribe: office-comment-subscribe@lists.oasis-open.org > Unsubscribe: office-comment-unsubscribe@lists.oasis-open.org > List help: office-comment-help@lists.oasis-open.org > List archive: http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/office-comment/ > Feedback License: http://www.oasis-open.org/who/ipr/feedback_license.pdf > List Guidelines: http://www.oasis-open.org/maillists/guidelines.php > Committee: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/tc_home.php?wg_abbrev=office > > > > -- Patrick Durusau patrick@durusau.net Chair, V1 - US TAG to JTC 1/SC 34 Convener, JTC 1/SC 34/WG 3 (Topic Maps) Editor, OpenDocument Format TC (OASIS), Project Editor ISO/IEC 26300 Co-Editor, ISO/IEC 13250-1, 13250-5 (Topic Maps)
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