RE: [oic] ODF 1.1 compatibility / manifest:version in ODF 1.2

["Dennis E. Hamilton" <dennis.hamilton@acm.org>]

There is nothing in the ODF 1.1 specification that addresses the occurrence of foreign elements in manifest.xml.  The foreign element conditions apply to the document schema, not manifest.xml.  This is even more clear for ODF 1.2 since manifest.xml is described in an entirely different document.

In addition, there is nothing anywhere in ODF specifications that addresses the occurrence of unknown tags and attributes in an ODF namespace.  The only requirement is that consumers accept documents that conform to the specified schemas after adjustment for foreign elements and attributes.  Foreign material do not use ODF namespaces.

So the fact that a strictly conformant ODF 1.1 consumer is defeated by a trivial addition to <manifest:manifest> is a downlevel interoperability problem.

Furthermore, there are still mandatory ODF 1.2 office:version attributes on the content.xml and other *.xml parts and a down-level consumer can decide what to do about that or not.  Those don't create schema validation problems.

Fundamentally, I believe that the coupling should not be so fragile.  The <manifest:manifest> manifest:version should be about characteristics of the package, not the document. There are other ways to deal with properties of the document, including the *optional* <manifest:file-entry> manifest:version attribute and the office:version attributes in document parts.  Since no producer I am aware of actually checks to determine whether an ODF 1.2 consumer is *required* in order to properly consume a document being output, slapping brittle ODF 1.2 version values on artifacts is rather ridiculous and it defeats the promise of interoperability in practice.  This is an unnecessary over-specification.  Considering how much more serious provisions are underspecified, it is unbelievable that the specification is so rigid on this matter.

 - Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Svante Schubert [mailto:svante.schubert@gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2012 05:55
To: dennis.hamilton@acm.org; oic@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [oic] ODF 1.1 compatibility / manifest:version in ODF 1.2

I am still puzzled, why any ODF 1.1 consumers should have a problem with
a mandatory ODF 1.2 attribute?
Even more a problem that creates a situation that only could be solved
by ODF 1.2 producers neglecting the mandatory ODF 1.2 attribute.
Can anyone point to the quote of the ODF 1.1 specification that is
claimed to have led to this situation?

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