Re: the future of OpenDocument in Abiword?

On Thu, 3 Aug 2006, Sander van Loon wrote:

> Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2006 20:40:36 +0200
> From: Sander van Loon <svloon@xs4all.nl>
> To: abiword-dev@abisource.com
> Subject: the future of OpenDocument in Abiword?
>
>
> I have brought this up before, and the answer was that because
> OpenDocument didn't play nice with Abiword's internals (or something
> like that, dunno what it was exactly anymore?) it was decided against
> using it as the default format.

The only file format where you can be 100% certain all features will be
saved correctly is the native Abiword XML format.

I'd say 99% of features of Abiword are supported in Rich Text Format
(RTF). I would also say that in practice RTF is still a more widely
supported format for document interchange than OpenDocument although
now that is has become an ISO standard the future for OpenDocument
looks goo.

I would not like to guess how much of Abiword features are supported in
OpenDocument but if I recall correctly there are certian things
OpenDocument doesn't support (some of the more complex list style and list
numbering if I recall correctly).

> But will it remain like this in the future?

In all likelyhood the default file format will always be the Abiword file
format. It is possible for you to change the default file format in your
copy of abiword but you do so entirely at your own risk, it is extremely
difficult to fully test all file formats and make sure no features are
lost on save.

[A useful comparison might be that some distributions modified OpenOffice
to save as Microsoft Word format by default but OpenOffice never changed
their own default file format.]

> We all think sane defaults are important, don't we?

> Yet still the abw format is the default,

I hope you are not impling using the native Abiword file format by default
is not a sane default as that would not be a very polite thing to say. I
would urge you to read through past dicussions.
The native abiword format is the _only sane default_ although it is
recognised that some users may prefer to change the default which is why
it is possible to do so.

> When will the OpenDocument import and export filters have matured enough
> to justify using OpenDocument as the default format?

The question you ask is more complicated than you realise (and even more
complicated than I realise). It is not a question of "when" it may not
even be a question of "if". It may eventualy be possible to change the
default to OpenDocument without causing too much difficulty but I think it
will almost always be preferable for the Abiword developers to use the
Abiword native format by default.

--
Alan H.