RE: [oiic-formation-discuss] My perspective. display perferct?

["Hurley, Garry \(L&I - OIT\)" <ghurley@state.pa.us>]

jonathon,

I agree with your position, and feel that while DOCUMENT portability is one thing, we cannot guarantee that the Times-New Roman font on Windows XP will look EXACTLY like the one on MacOS 10.95876 (yes, I just added numbers there).  To that end, terms like "display perfect" and "pixel perfect" really do not apply to the ODF portability.  There are some aspects which would, however, be acceptable, in th e"layout perfect" arguments.  For example, page breaks, paragraph styles, line-breaks, page formatting (in as much as border widths are concerned) and line spacing would be needed in a document that could be printed or represented for sighted users.  I have said this in prior threads on this list, but apparently people don't seem to get that.  Display is the last thing I worry about as a developer.  You can make ugly look better, but you can't make poor design work properly.  Just look at most of the Visual Basic programs you see on the market.  They have really good user interfaces, but the code behind them often doesn't work properly.  I could point you to dozens of government IT projects that were built with VB that the clients saw the prototype (VB's only real purpose) and expected it to work properly.

I think we need to remember that you can't build a house from the top down, and likewise you cannot build a standard from a top-down approach.  Start with a base level and move upwards.  Platform and application independence is key, THEN you worry about the "gee, it would be nice if..." features.

Garry L. Hurley Jr.
Application Developer 2
Office of Information Technology - Bureau of Application Development
PA Department of Labor & Industry
651 Boas Street, Harrisburg, PA 17121 
Phone: 717.506.9373 (UCMS) or 717.346.9799 (Harrisburg)  Fax: 717.506.0798  Mobile: 717.649.0597
www.dli.state.pa.us <http://www.dli.state.pa.us>


My comments do not reflect those of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, its various agencies and departments, or its citizens.  They are my own, and may or may not be shared by those in positions of authority over me.


-----Original Message-----
From: jonathon [mailto:jonathon.blake@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, July 02, 2008 11:58 AM
Cc: oiic-formation-discuss@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: Re: [oiic-formation-discuss] My perspective. display perferct?


On Wed, Jul 2, 2008 at 5:45 AM, David Gerard wrote:

> Thomas and Rob explained in some detail why asking for layout-perfect from ODF is asking for a pony.

> Would it be reasonable for the interop TC to at least address the issue and why asking for this is asking for a pony? At least to get the issue dealt with.

ODF is a file format that is both device independent and platform
independent.  As such, one can not make any assumptions about what the
input device is, or what the output device is.

The issue is whether or not the "content" is retained, when the ODF
file is transformed for any specific output device.

Consider, for example, the transformation that is required for a
document that was originally designed to be printed on a laser
printer, for it to be printed out on a Moon Printer, or a Braille
Embosser.

Wondering whether or not there needs to be a formal ODF specification
defining the transforming to/from tactile writing systems, and/or a11y
writing systems.

xan

jonathon

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