Brill,
> The problem is not that its an XML file format... the problem is that in
> order to use it, I have to install and use a not-insignificant application
> that I have no interest in using (though I'm sure its a great app).
Well, you know, it pretty much installs itself and if one is mostly only going
to be typing text and leaving the formatting chores up to others then the
learning curve is very short. You should be up and running within 20 minutes
max.
> So, that's why I suggest HTML. If formatting is essential, doesn't
> OpenOffice have a WYSIWYG editor like FrontPage or something?
> The current version of FrontPage is actually pretty good... not a lot of
> garbage... surely OpenOffice has something like that?
Sure, OpenOffice has a WYSIWYG editor but any WYSIWYG editors are going to
fight each other to have the document's tag selection and formatting placed in
its own pet style. I have tried this and it does not work well at all.
Here is my perspective. I have downloaded and read through a number of
specifications like the Servlet spec, the JavaBeans spec, the EJB spec and most
recently the new Sun ACE spec. Most specifications contain a ton of typing,
formatting, sectioning and sub-sectioning. A number of them also contain a
significant number of diagrams.
Since I bet I have more free time than anyone else on the list (you guys have
no idea how much free time a university faculty member has!) the responsibility
for typing in, formatting, reformatting and maintaining the specifications we
generate will probably fall on my shoulders.
As I analyze this I am not at all looking forward to the prospect of having to
do this work using raw text or even HTML. Beyond this, if our core working
documents are in raw text or HTML I also do not want to have to go through the
work of copying them into an office suite for formatting every time a new
version of the specification is released.
I am kind of stuck on this issue right now because it looks like we are within
a week or so of actually starting work on developing the specification
documents and I would personally rather resolve this issue sooner rather than
later.
What do other people on the list think? Are we going to encode the core
specification documents inside of a modern, open, XML based office suite format
or are we going to chisel it into clay tablets? ;-)
Again, if everone mostly leaves the formatting chores up to me, entering and
editing text using OpenOffice is quite easy.
Ted
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