IS ODF 1.1 FOREVER? Maybe in Internet terms.
robert_weir at us.ibm.com
robert_weir at us.ibm.com
Sat Mar 27 15:53:39 CET 2010
Simple question: Would it be good if the W3C withdrew earlier versions of
XML and HTML and CSS just because there were newer revisions of these
standards?
Answer: Of course not. Same situation as ODF. Even where a new browser
comes along, like Google Chrome, as a practical matter it must support the
current version of the standard, as well as earlier revisions, since
content exists "in the wild" in those formats. In some cases we've seen
the W3C's newer revisions have far less adoption than their earlier work,
e.g., XML 1.1. In such cases withdrawing the earlier standard would have
been disastrous.
So, this might be a place where ISO should emulate the best practices of
the real world. If there is no important policy principle at play here
against maintaining multiple versions of the the same standard (and I
can't see what that could be) then we should work with ITTF (and SWG
Directives, if necessary) to do the sensible thing. It is rumored that
this is possible.
-Rob
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