RE: [chairs] need your comments on DocMgmt system requirements

[Luc Clément <luc@iclement.net>]

I ask that before we go too far down the path of selecting XML that we
identify (reasonably priced) editors/conversion utilities that can handle
large documents. The UDDI spec for example is 411 pages long (123K words /
901K characters including white spaces); it's been a challenge to use HTML
editors and thus one of the reasons for sticking to MSWord for document
editing and use of its native (though somewhat unsatisfactory) HTML
conversion capability -- aside from the obvious need to have a means of
supporting the TC's document revision needs. 

I believe that we should not consider selecting a document format (other
than HTML and/or PDF for which there is ample support) until we've
identified our list of requirements (e.g. large document and revision
support) and evaluated tooling (editors and/or conversion utils) to support
these. 

I'd certainly like the opportunity to try out recommended XML editors/utils
before we convince ourselves of using or mandating XML for OASIS specs. 

Luc

-----Original Message-----
From: Drummond Reed [mailto:drummond.reed@cordance.net] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 16:17
To: 'Rex Brooks'; karl.best@oasis-open.org; 'Chairs OASIS'
Cc: 'lomas >> Jeff Lomas'
Subject: RE: [chairs] need your comments on DocMgmt system requirements

+1. I think it's a foregone conclusion there's no way to get consensus
across all OASIS users on an editor. But if there were an open-standard
interface/XML interchange format, and a reasonable variety of editors that
did (or could be made to) support it, that should work.

After all, this is an e-business collaboration standard we're discussing
here ;-)

=Drummond

-----Original Message-----
From: Rex Brooks [mailto:rexb@starbourne.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2004 4:48 PM
To: karl.best@oasis-open.org; Chairs OASIS
Cc: lomas >> Jeff Lomas
Subject: Re: [chairs] need your comments on DocMgmt system requirements

I would go for xml, if we can have a toolset that can do a roundtrip with
Word.

Ciao,
Rex

At 5:51 PM -0500 2/18/04, Karl F. Best wrote:
>Excellent comments, everyone. Keep 'em coming.
>
>I see a consensus that we want a sandbox as a phase prior to checkin 
>and version control, and a suggestion to use wiki for the sandbox.
>We will need to have access control too, to restrict this to the TC 
>members.
>
>I see a lot of pros-n-cons for using MSWord together with CVS in the 
>second phase, especially as it relates to change control. We're not 
>committed to CVS yet; that's just a popular suggestion. How would you 
>feel about a requirement to do all of your documents in HTML or XML? 
>i.e. no proprietary or binary formats. (Now there's a big can of worms 
>to open :-) I'm not making any threats; just wondering if that might be 
>a good way to go. Perhaps this would require OASIS providing tools for 
>the TCs to use; we'd have to ask some vendors for contributions.
>
>If we did use some text-based format (as above), would CVS provide us 
>with change logs?
>
>-Karl


--
Rex Brooks
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