RE: [oic] profiles: ODF 1.2 or 1.1

["Hanssens Bart" <Bart.Hanssens@fedict.be>]

Title: RE: [oic] profiles: ODF 1.2 or 1.1

Hello Rob,


> I'm not sure I understand.  This TC has the ability, by our charter, to
> define and standardize profiles.  We're not limited to advising the ODF
> TC.

True, we can do that on our own. I'll clarify myself: for ODF Next-Gen,
I suppose at least some of the OIC work will go into the spec itself,
while the rest remains in the OIC.

Allow me to elaborate with this example:

- say I'm an implementer, and I want to create a spreadsheet application
- great, ODF 1.2 has OpenFormula, incorporated as part 2 of the spec
- OpenFormula has clearly defined predefined groups, which is excellent

(I assume that "group" equals to "level", like, for instance SQL has,
if not, I stand corrected)

- I opt to implement only the Small group
- of course, there's more to a implementing a spreadsheet than just
formulas, so now I want to add other functionality
- the ODF spec itself is divided in nicely structured chapters, you
could call them "feature sets collections" or whatever, excellent
- now I want to have a basic metadata group/level, metadata level...
- (autch, no such thing)


So, my understanding would be that:

- the OIC will create these "basic" (and perhaps other) groups/levels
for each and every chapter
- in addition, the OIC should create (amongst others) a Spreadsheet
profile consisting of a set of these "leveled feature sets"


Now, I think it would be great if the ODF main TC would then incorporate
the levels/groups (as defined by the OIC, so that's a bit copy/paste
work) into the "ODF Next-Gen" spec, just like OFF.

Meanwhile, the OIC would still maintain the Spreadsheet profile, and
start some work on a, say, ODF/Archive profile or whatever.

(Frankly, I think there's no point in creating an Archive profile before
ironing out some wrinkles in the "non-dusty" department...)



> My guess is you would want to base the profile on ODF 1.2, since that
> is what vendors will be moving on to over the next 12-months.  But this
> is hard to answer in the abstract.  I think we need to first ask "what
> profiles?".

Well, I've added some thoughts on http://wiki.oasis-open.org/oic/ODFProfiles

Maybe "profile" is the wrong angle, having a pre-defined "basic level" for
each and every chapter is what I really want. Raising the floor and all
that.


> From the interoperability standpoint, we have issues today even with
> heavy-weight desktop editors.

Yes, I kind of noticed that...


> Profiles won't help us there.  So I think a  healthy emphasis on the test
> case work will give us the best results.

I agree that we need to do some heavy lifting on testing :-)



Best regards,

Bart