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Ekspertudvalget om åbne standarder
c/o IT- og Telestyrelsen
Holsteinsgade 63
2100 København Ø
Oracle, d. 5.oktober 2010
Vedr.: Besvarelse af spørgsmål fra Ekspertudvalget om Åbne Standarder i brev af
12. oktober 2010
Mange tak for henvendelsen vedr. Ekspertudvalgets arbejde og behov for afklaring, som vi
hermed har fornøjelsen at besvare nedenfor. Da gruppen bag besvarelsen er international
har vi svaret på Engelsk efter ligeledes at have oversat jeres brev af d. 12. oktober.
Med venlig hilsen
Anders Lund Rendtorff, Kommunikationsdirektør
(Formand for open source udvalget i ITB)
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Questions to Oracle from DK expert committee on open standards
Oracle has a long standing commitment to open standards. Open standards is part of
Oracle's DNA. We understand your questions to be a direct consequence of the
detailed principles for the committee's work following from the conclusion of the paper
which all parties in Parliament adopted in January 2010.1
Oracle strongly supports the Danish legislation that would require open standards,
interoperability and standardised interfaces in public procurement in the context of IT
strategies, architectures, interoperability frameworks, etc. The Danish initiatives on
open standards show Denmark as a frontrunner and innovator that will reap huge
benefits in the years to come.
However, as you know very well, interoperability is not just about “standardised
interfaces” but also about protocols and formats. By requiring open standards in
public procurement public authorities use their procurement power for a major
strategic move in industrial policy: they request open ecosystems and open
infrastructures and thus promote competitiveness and innovation in the public sector.
Oracle (NASDAQ: ORCL) the world's most complete, open, and integrated business
software and hardware systems company, sees software standardisation as a distinct
domain of standardisation with its own specific logic which is currently not fully
understood and recognised in EU or in the context of national policy or legislation.
Oracle encourages policy makers to consider royalty-free licensing where software
interoperability is key and in order not to discriminate against Open Source licensed
technology.
The leading global open standards development organisations like W3C, OASIS,
IETF, and others have implemented excellent processes exceeding the formally
recognised standards organisations in terms of transparency as well as regarding the
opportunity for all interested stakeholders to contribute and comment on
standardisation projects and to participate in the consensus building decision making
process.
1. The ODF standard2 is, as are all OASIS specifications, fully documented and
publicly available. Older versions and newer drafts are also fully documented and
publicly available, including ODF 1.03 and the ODF 1.2 Public Review Drafts (which
are not yet standards but work approved by the OpenDocument TC)4. Importantly,
the standards process is transparent, with the entire history of the development of the
ODF standard archived and freely available.5
2. The ODF standard is freely implementable without economic, political or legal
constraints on implementation and usage. In fact, ODF is royalty-free. It can be used
without charge by anyone. An article in the Open Document FAQ describes the open
specification process.6 Furthermore, ODF has with OpenOffice.org7 a free and open
source office suite as reference implementation.
3. The ODF standard has been approved by a recognized international standards
organization such as ISO, and standardized and maintained in an open forum through
an open process. OpenDocument v1.0 has been approved as the ISO and IEC
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
See Konklusionspapir om anvendelsen af åbne standarder for software i det offentlige:
http://vtu.dk/filer/aabne-standarder/bilag58.html (available in Danish only)
ODF Standard: http://docs.oasis-open.org/office/v1.1/OS/OpenDocument-v1.1.pdf
ODF 1.0: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/12572/OpenDocument-v1.0-os.pdf
ODF 1.2 Public Review Drafts (which are not yet standards but work approved by the
OpenDocument TC): http://docs.oasis-open.org/office/v1.2/
See http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/office/
See http://opendocument.xml.org/node/133
See http://www.openoffice.org
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International Standard ISO/IEC 26300:2006.8 OpenDocument v1.2 will be sent for
ISO certification soon. The steps in this process are: Committee Specification (could
be two more months) then OASIS Standard (a couple of months after that) Then the
PAS process at ISO – this is at a minimum a 3 month ballot.
ISO/IEC SC34/WG6 is currently working on an amendment for ISO/IEC 26300 that
updates it to ODF 1.1, and there is an agreement between OASIS and ISO that
requires that all ODF version that are approved by OASIS are also submitted to ISO.
4. The ODF standard can demonstrably be implemented directly by all in its entirety
on several platforms. ODF is implemented through OpenOffice.org and its commercial
spin-offs Oracle Open Office, Lotus Symphony and many others.9
5. The ODF standard is interoperable within the functionality ceiling with other
standards in the Danish government's standards catalogue. In fact, the
OpenDocument TC charter10 describes it explicitly as a goal. Excerpt from the charter:
•
it should 'borrow' from similar, existing standards wherever possible and
permitted.
•
it must be compatible with the W3C Extensible Markup Language (XML)
v1.0 and W3C Namespaces in XML v1.0 specifications,
•
it must be friendly to transformations using XSLT or similar XML-based
languages or tools.
For a deeper insight into ODF application interoperability, we would point to the
interoperability study performed by OSL in Denmark11
With this preamble, here follows a point by point answer to the 10 questions
posed by the Chairman of the Danish Committee on Open Standards.
1.
Has Oracle developed one or more office applications that can read and / or write
documents in formats as specified in one or more of the above standards?
YES
If the answer to this question is no, please describe what specifically prevents an
implementation of the open standard.
If the answer to this question is yes, please specify application names and version
numbers, and answer the following questions for each relevant application.
References hereinafter to "applications" will aim for these applications.
Oracle Open Office v3.2.1 (commercial) and OpenOffice.org v3.2.1 (fully open source
and free). Note that these applications share the same code base, and will BOTH be
refered as Open Office thereafter, as answers that apply to one apply as is to the
other. In addition, there is the planned Oracle Cloud Office which is a web based
Office suite which uses ODF as default file format to read and write documents.
Additionally, Oracle produces several server-side products that process ODF
8
9
10
ISO/IEC 26300:2006: http://standards.iso.org/ittf/PubliclyAvailableStandards/index.html
The OpenOffice.org Conference (OooCon 2010) in Budapest, Hungary, featured eight ODF 1.2
implementations: IBM Lotus Symphony, KDE.org and KOffice, OpenOffice.org Novell Edition,
Oracle Open Office, lpOD ODF Python Library, ODF Toolkit for Java, Maemo FreOffice, and Open
Framework Systems (OFS): http://opendocument.xml.org/news/oasis-interop-at-ooocon-featureseight-odf-12-implementations
OASIS OpenDocument TC charter: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/charter.php
11 http://osl.dk/nyheder/pressemeddelelser/27-august-2009.html#c2364
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documents, including Open Office Server, Outside In, and the ODF toolkit. These
tools are important for document automation. Oracle Outside In, a technology used to
access, transform, and control the contents of files, is certified for both ODF 1.1 and
ODF 1.2. ODF toolkit, which includes ODFDOM, provides access to ODF
documents through APIs for several popular programming languages, such as Java.
The following questions should be answered for each version of such an application
that uses one or more of the standards.
2.
Which of the standards (mentioned by name, version number and Amendment) does
the application support?
Oracle Open Office v3.2.1 and OpenOffice.org v3.2.1 support ISO/IEC 26300:2006.
Additionally, Oracle Open Office v3.2.1, OpenOffice.org v3.2.1 all support ODF 1.2
CD5 as well is the planned Oracle Cloud Office expected to do.
3.
Is this implementation fully compliant with that standard or has it only been partially
implemented.
The implementations of ISO/IEC 26300:2006 in the three applications in question
(Oracle Open Office v3.2.1 and OpenOffice.org v3.2.1) are fully compliant as well is
the planned Oracle Cloud Office expected to.
4.
What platforms (ie operating system) can the application run on?
Oracle Open Office v3.2.1 and OpenOffice.org v3.2.1 can each run on Solaris,
Windows (XP and above), Linux (all versions, shipped by default with most distribs
like Ubuntu), MacOS, as well as most BSD Unix variants (since it's available in source
and compiled for each distribution).
Oracle Outside In Viewer is available for HP-UX 32-bit (PA-RISC), IBM AIX 32-bi,
Linux (x86-32), Solaris (Sun SPARC-32), Solaris (x86-32), Windows (IA-64), Windows
(x86-32), Windows (x86-64), and Windows ActiveX (x86-32)
5.
If the application can be run through a browser, please enter through which server
platforms implementation can be used.
The planned Oracle Cloud Office is expected to have a platform independent
architecture on the server side. Linux, Solaris and Windows are expected to be
supported.
Oracle Outside In HTML Exporter is supported on HP-UX (IA-64), HP-UX 32-bit (PARISC) ,HP-UX 64-bit (PA-RISC) ,IBM AIX 32-bit, IBM AIX 64-bit, IBM z/OS (OS 390),
Linux (IA-64), Linux (PPC-32), Linux (PPC-64), Linux (IBM zSeries-31), Linux (IBM
zSeries-64), Linux (x86-32), Linux (x86-64), Solaris (Sun SPARC-32), Solaris (Sun
SPARC-64), Solaris (x86-32), Solaris (x86-64), Windows (IA-64), Windows (x86-32),
and Windows (x86-64).
Oracle Open Office Server is supported on Solaris, Linux, Mac, and Windows.
6.
Is the standard implemented for word processing, spreadsheets and presentations?
Please specify if there are differences for the three document formats.
The ODF standard ISO/IEC 26300:2006 is implemented for ALL formats (word
processing, spreadsheets, and presentations) in both applications (Oracle Open
Office v3.2.1 and OpenOffice.org v3.2.1)
7.
Does the implementation require that one saves in a format that goes beyond the ISO
approved and published standard?
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NO.
The user can specify if they prefer the standard, or use known extensions. The
available options are ODF 1.1, ODF 1.2, and ODF 1.2 + extensions, which relate to
the upcoming ISO/IEC 26300:2006 Open Document Format for Office Applications –
Amendment 1 and ODF 1.2 (currently CD5 at OASIS), which is in process of
becoming an OASIS and later ISO standard.
OASIS requires that a draft standard have 3 independent uses or implementations
before becoming an OASIS Standard, thus it is very reasonable that Open Office and
others implement the draft standard.
For The points 8, 11 and 12 above, the following clarification in English:
For ISO/IEC 29500:2008:
Does the application have full compliance with conformance class strict (part 1) and
conformance class transitional (part 4)
Open Office provides some support for the MS Office 2007 and 2010 file formats
which are close to the 'conformance class transitional' standard of OOXML. Oracle
Open Office v3.2.1 and OpenOffice.org v3.2.1 conformant readers of 1.ISO/IEC
29500:2008 (both part1 and part 4).
For ISO/IEC 26300:2006: Does the application have full compliance with the standard
(ODF 1.0)?
Yes, Open Office provides full compliance with ODF 1.0 and 1.1, although the default
is ODF 1.2 (extended ). The default can be changed to ODF 1.0/1.1.
Does the application have full compliance with OASIS ODF 1.1 (to be equal to ISO/IEC
26300:2006 ODF Amendment 1)?
Yes, see above.
Does the application include features not specified in the open and published standard
ISO/IEC 26300:2006 or Amendment 1? For example by including features in ODF 1.2
(expanded).
Yes, see above. Note, the implementation of these features is essential to the
continued ODF standardization work.
If the answer is negative for points 8, 11 and / or 12 above, please indicate:
8.
In what respects, the does the application not meet the standard adopted?
N/a
For the evaluation of Principle 5:
9.
To what extent is the application able to convert from one word processor format to
another in the provisional list in the so-called functionalityceiling without information
loss and no loss of formatting?
Due to the nature of document formats and the differences in the underlying
approach, there should be no expectations of clean round trip conversions.
The three applications (Oracle Open Office v3.2.1, the planned Oracle Cloud Office,
and OpenOffice.org v3.2.1) are able to convert from one word processor format to
another in the provisional list to the same extent as other applications can do the
same.
Different document formats have different paradigms. Some are not translatable from
one to the other. OOXML documents can embed system call specific information that
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cannot be processed on non Windows machines. As such, conversion from OOXML
to any other format many not always be possible.
Open Office provides an import filter for the OOXML format. Also, an export filter is
planned for the near future. Today, the MS Office 97-2003 file formats (.doc, .xls,
and .ppt) can be used for document exchange with MS Office users. The MS Office
97-2003 file formats are the most widely used and the most interoperable formats
existing, due to the large amount of experience with these formats. They are not
open standards, and they lack many of the benefits of modern file formats.
When macros are included in documents, they become considerably less
interoperable. The macro languages are not included in ISO/IEC 29500:2008, thus
do not represent a standardized portion of their document format. Open Office can
handle a large portion of the macros associated with the Microsoft Office 97-2003 file
formats, many of which, though, are platform dependent. The approach MS took in
developing OOXML compounded this problem
•
•
they matched the document format to the internal memory structure of MS
applications (e.g. use of text runs vs. logical structure of a document)
In attempting to create this round trip conversion fidelity with their earlier binary
format, MS created the the abomination that is OOXML transitional mode. In this
mode, the binary format's structure is encoded in the XML based format, and the
resulting data stream represents less the actual document's structure, than the
stream of inputs that the MS rendering engine turned into a document. This
approach by Microsoft directly lead to interoperability problems with other
formats, and their own inability to move away from the Transitional form of
OOXML
10. Is the application able to convert into a "round trip" within the functionality ceiling
without information loss and no loss of formatting?
Because, as specified in point above, conversion from one standard to the other is not
always possible, the answer to that question has to naturally be, NO.
An example; If you write the French word "bise" at the end of a letter, it usually means
"kiss". But "bise" is also a northern wind. The result is that the translation of "bise"
from French to English and back to French tends to yield in most translator "vent du
nord" because that is what "northern wind" translates to from English to French. In a
similar way, text runs in an ISO/IEC 29500:2008 document can be organized
differently than the paragraphs in an ISO/IEC 26300:2006 document, resulting in the
requirement of the reinterpretation of the document structure by the conversion
engine. A round trip requires this conversion, and thus reorganization, of the structure
of the entire document. This means that changes, typically of styling, can occur in
otherwise unedited parts of the document. While these conversions are unlikely to
effect the contents of the document, the underlying structure of the document is likely
to be changed, due to the differences in the formats.
The focus of Oracle's Open Office engineering is to achieve the best and smoothest
compatibility with MS Office.
Finally, for further discussion on these matters, one might consult the paper: Competition
in Office Suite Programs (2009) by Andy Updegrove (Gesmer Updegrove LLP) and Mark
MacCarthy (Georgetown University).12
12
Competition in Office Suite Programs (2009):
http://www18.georgetown.edu/data/people/maccartm/publication-43095.pdf