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Subject: Re: [office] Single XML file


On Wednesday 29 August 2012 17:47:31 PM Patrick Durusau wrote:
> Greetings!
> 
> Since there are almost three weeks until the next TC meeting, I am
> hopeful that everyone can decide if the single XML file format option is
> something they really need? See:
> https://tools.oasis-open.org/issues/browse/OFFICE-3781
> 
> It is probably doable, but I don't see the value-add from keeping it as
> an option.
> 
> Thoughts/suggestions?

It is good to revisit features to see if we still need them.

The single xml file format for ODF is tremendously useful in my opinion, for a 
number of reasons. I will list what I think are reasons pro and contra the 
single xml format.

Pro
---

- easier to create than zip
- easier to read than zip
- easier to make diffs, which is useful for people that put ODF in version 
control systems
- it is being used, notably by LibreOffice and WebODF
- is useful for web based office suites because of easy file -> DOM mapping
- can be embedded in other XML files

Contra
------

- it makes the specification larger
- it is not widely supported even though it was introduced in ODF 1.0
- the file size is larger
- it does not have all the features that the zip file has (e.g. rdf is not 
supported at the moment)


The missing RDF support can be fixed, at which point there are not so many 
downsides to keeping the single file format.

If this topic came up for a vote, I would vote firmly in favor of keeping the 
single file format.

Cheers,
Jos








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