On 25/02/14 09:57, Tom wrote:
On 25/02/14 07:41, Brad Rogers wrote:
On Mon, 24 Feb 2014 21:36:44 +0000
Martijn Grooten <martijn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hello Martijn,
The same of course is true for HTML, so this in itself shouldn't be held
I may have been unclear; I'm talking about OOXML as ratified by the ISO.
'HTML' is a moving goal whereas OOXML is a ratified ISO standard.
Any deviation from that standard isn't allowed (it's stops being the
standard). Any software that is supposed to be able to handle OOXML
should be able to deal with it wherever it's generated.
But OOXML allows a binary blob which means it ONLY really runs on
Windows. And MS cant even adhere to their own paid for 'standard'.
A subset of free flowing HTML would be ideal - this would be
usable across almost all device and would be a lot more accessible
and substantially reduce the need for printing. A JSON data
interface standard would allow embedding of data in aforesaid
'documents' and useful data exchange too.
With HTML they could even hand out a CKeditor modified for almost
any device for about a days work for each one. It took me about an
hour to write a document control system using CKeditor and a mysql
dbase - you could do it in sqllite quite easily, or just provide a
cut and paste service for 'sending' to the government.
IF the government wanted standards and knew what it was doing
And there lies the rub.. the second part is the usual stumbling
block in most things since government departments are headed by
Ministers and Secretaries of State who are political appointees not
experts who actually know what they are doing. Granted they have
thousands of civil servants below them, many of whom I'm sure /do/
know their subject inside out, however when the boss gives you an
unrealistic goal it's often tricky to explain why it isn't going to
work because most of the time they don't want to hear it. The
problem is compounded when the issue isn't even directly related to
the department's core function; e.g. the NHS whose core function is
healthcare, and IT projects.
Julian
PS No offence intended to any government employees on the list of
course, I used to work in Local Government myself.
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