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On Sat, 14 May 2011 11:54:17 +0100 tom wrote: > On 14/05/11 11:29, Grant Sewell wrote: > > On Sat, 14 May 2011 07:33:57 +0100 > > tom wrote: > > > >> On 13/05/11 18:26, Grant Sewell wrote: > >>> <snip> > >>> *Some* documents are in proprietary formats. Not all. > >>> > >>> Grant. > >>> > >> For proprietary read 'human and not computer'. Its very very easy > >> to take computer interpretable data and present it for humans to > >> read. Its not so easy the other way round. To my PC an ODF > >> document is just garbage compared to the same data in an XML file > >> which can be made human readable with a style sheet. I'd guess > >> than most homes and offices have encrypted (and lost)>90% of their > >> data in documents. Tom te tom te tom > > Funny, I've just taken a random (fairly small) ODF spreadsheet > > document on my computer, renamed it unzipped it (since it seems to > > be a fairly standard zip compressed file), and this is what I found: > > > > content.xml: XML document text > > meta.xml: XML document text > > mimetype: ASCII text, with no line terminators > > settings.xml: XML document text > > styles.xml: XML document text > > META-INF/manifest.xml: XML document text > > Thumbnails/thumbnail.png: PNG image, 225 x 256, 8-bit/color RGB, > > non-interlaced > > > > Now, as far as I can tell almost all the above components of that > > ODF document are XML, which is exactly what you wanted. I'm not > > entirely sure I understand how you can say "To my PC and ODF > > document is just garbage compared to the same data in an XML file" > > when an ODF document comprises almost exclusively XML files. > > > > Sure there is a PNG file but I'm not sure normal XML is the best > > way of storing 225x256 pixels of 8bpp image data. I have no doubt > > it *could* be done, but is it necessarily the best way of doing so? > > > > Grant. > > > No thatâs NOT what I wanted - I want the DATA xml (or JSON or > whatever) formatted - ODF is about presentation. > When I get an invoice I'd like the DATA in it (dates, address, > invoice number, company identification etc) formatted so that my > accountancy package can read it straight in. So... what you're telling me is that ODF *doesn't* include my data? It *only* includes formatting information?! What the hell has LibreOffice done with my data?! Where is it?! :p I thought ODF contained both the data *and* the formatting stuff... so *you* could take the data (and just the data) if you wanted, whereas those of us who want the data *and* the formatting information could use it too! Sounds like a win-win to me! Incidentally, if it seems that I'm being a touch facetious it's because I am. I understand completely your viewpoint, and I don't necessarily disagree with it. But the world isn't black/white so surely there's room for 90% grey in your argument? Grant. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq