Some comparisons between Open XML and ODF

Anti-Open XML lobbyists have long been crying foul on some of the flaws in the specification.

Two main points emerge from their perspective:

1. ODF is already an ISO standard, therefore there is no need for Open XML.
2. Open XML has a number of flaws which make it unsuitable for becoming an ISO standard.

The first point ignores the fact that Open XML and ODF were created to fulfil different needs.

Open XML provides complete support for representing (with 100% fidelity) the billions of existing Microsoft Office binary documents in existence today.

In addition, the specification allows for custom XML to be inserted into documents. It may sound simple, but this faeture represents a fundamental shift in how we think of documents. They are no longer just representations of data, they are now the (structured) containers for data as well. Please refer to my previous post for more information on this groundbreaking feature.

Based on the second point, ODF should have none of the flaws Open XML has, because it's already an ISO standard.

However, the fact remains that no standard is created perfectly the first time around. That's what the maintenance process is for.

In fact, ODF v1.0 (the only ISO standard of ODF) has no definition for spreadsheet formulae, but this is being addressed in v1.2 (as part of the maintenance process), which still needs to become an ISO standard.

Here's a quote from Jim Melton, the editor of the international SQL standard (which has been an ISO standard since 1987), speaking with regard to the "high number of comments" raised on Open XML,

Or perhaps most people were somewhat intimidated by the prospect of (thoroughly) reviewing a 6,000 page document. To put this in perspective for those who know SQL’s size and complexity, the sum of all nine parts of SQL is about 3950 pages. A ballot on SQL frequently receives several thousand comments, and we’ve been balloting versions of SQL for 20 years!

After the BRM, 98.73% of the proposed changes based on the comments were accepted. This was a huge leap forward in the technical quality of Open XML.

Brian Jones, Senior Program Manager for Office, recently posted an article describing some of the flaws in Open XML that also exist (sometimes to a higher degree!) in ODF v1.0 (an exisiting ISO standard).

Brian discusses all the "biggies", date formats, password hashing, printer settings and conformance clauses. These issues have been raised numerous times in the past, and are even now being resurrected and put forward to national standards bodies, in spite of the changes that occurred at the BRM that have corrected them.

I urge you, as a technical reader, to take a look at Brian's post, so that you have a broader perspective of Open XML and ODF.

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