From: Mustafa Akgul (akgul@Bilkent.EDU.TR)
Date: Fri 07 Jul 2006 - 04:53:03 GMT
Microsoft'un open source lab kurmasi da soz konusu.
Asagidaki haber opendocument formatla ilgili. Ęki yonlu
ceviricler uretecekler.
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http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6090912.html?tag=nl.e622
Microsoft bends on OpenDocument
By Martin LaMonica, CNET News.com
Published on ZDNet News: July 5, 2006, 9:01 PM PT
Microsoft said it plans to sponsor an open-source project to
create software that will convert Office documents to
OpenDocument, a rival format gaining ground, particularly among
governments.
The software giant on Thursday launched the Open XML Translator
project on SourceForge.net, a popular site for hosting
code-sharing projects. The software will be available under the
BSD open-source license.
The software, developed by a France-based Microsoft partner,
will allow people to use Microsoft Office to open and save
documents in the OpenDocument, or ODF, format.
Although Microsoft Office document formats are the most widely
used, OpenDocument has emerged as an alternative with
significant vendor backing and with high-profile government
customers in Massachusetts and Belgium. OpenDocument is an
XML-based format developed under the standards group OASIS, or
the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information
Standards.
The decision to manage the project is something of a reversal
for Microsoft. Until now, it said that it would not natively
support OpenDocument in Office, citing lack of demand. Instead,
it would rely instead on third parties for format translators.
Microsoft isn't seeing a sharp uptick in demand for
OpenDocument, but government customers urged the company to
provide interoperability between Microsoft's own forthcoming
XML Office formats and OpenDocument, said Tom Robertson, the
general manager of interoperability and standards at the
software giant.
"We're hearing that (customers) don't want homogeneity--they
want diversity; they want translatability," Robertson said.
"And some customers are saying they would like us to focus on
this to a certain extent, to make sure the product is high
quality."
Conversion schedule
n Thursday, the Open XML Translator project intends to release
a prototype of software that will change Word documents to
OpenDocument, and vice versa. The goal is to have a Word
plug-in for Office 2007 by the end of this year and translators
for Excel and PowerPoint next year, said Jean Paoli, the
general manager of interoperability and XML architecture at
Microsoft.
The conversions will be based on Microsoft's Open Office XML,
the XML-based file formats that will be the default setting in
Office 2007, due next year. Microsoft is seeking to make Open
Office XML an Ecma International standard by the end of this
year, Paoli said.
Because Open Office XML is backward-compatible, the translator
will work with older versions of Office, Paoli said. However,
he said that because the two standards are significantly
different, perfect document translation is not possible.
"We wanted to have this project be really transparent," Paoli
said. "No translation is perfect. There are a lot of
trade-offs between Open XML, which is actually full-featured
and backward-compatible, and ODF, which is more limited."
For example, participants in the project will have to make a
technical choice if there is a feature in Office 2007 that is
not supported in OpenDocument-based products, he said.
Paoli said that Microsoft is managing the project and
providing some resources.
France-based Clever Age is writing the code and will
participate in the project. Aztecsoft in India is testing the
software, and Dialogika in Germany will test it to meet
European Commission customer requirements.
A handful of document format converters are already under
development, including an Office plug-in from the
OpenDocument Foundation, which is expected to be tested by
Massachusetts.
Paoli said Microsoft expects that there will be a number of
translators.