Re: [opendocument-users] simple OO.org document goes awry in MS Office 2007 w/SP2 - what went wrong?

[robert_weir@us.ibm.com]

rjelliffe@allette.com.au wrote on 06/17/2009 02:03:28 PM:

> 
> Or you could have a standards process that attempted to prioritize bug
> fixes over new features. Oh, but that is the route the ODF TC decided 
not
> to take. It is a bit much to decide to deprioritize bug fixes in a
> standard, then complain that standards are slow, don't you think? The
> challenge for committees and their chairs is how to organize themselves 
to
> prevent death marches, I suppose.
> 

Rick, however you slice it, a user will get their issue addressed faster 
if we fix a bug in an implementation and submit a defect report on the 
standard at the same time, than it will be to submit a defect report, wait 
for it to be addressed in the standard and only then fix your application. 
 

That said, I'm always in favor of getting standards updated faster. 
Speaking of which, the ODF TC received a lot of grief over being slow to 
respond to an SC34 defect report.  But we responded to it last Novemeber, 
and SC34 has done absolutely nothing to it in the last 7 months.  It has 
not even made it onto an agenda.  What's the deal with that?

> By the way, Java did not fix the bugs in its HTML handling even though
> they were on the books for 10 years. It is a myth that a corporation 
will
> necessarily prioritize a user's particular bug fixes. It is even true of
> some open source projects: I think it takes at least 6 months for fixes 
to
> penetrate Apache Xerces, for example, IIRC.
> 

Of course corporations prioritize customer support issues.  You don't 
exist as a corporation for nearly 100 years without getting that right.

-Rob