A Peek Behind the Ecma OOXML Curtain
As the date for the February BRM (Ballot Resolution Meeting) on ISO/IEC JTC1 DIS 29500 (a/k/a Ecma 376, a/k/a Microsoft OOXML) approaches, more and more attention is being paid to how Ecma will propose the disposition of the comments submitted during the general voting period. This level of heightened interest is legitimately urgent, due to both the great number of the comments that need to be resolved, even after elimination of duplicates, as well because of the late date upon which the proposed resolutions will be made public (the deadline, if memory serves, is January 19, while the BRM will commence its deliberations on February 25 of next year).The words are therefore flying fast and furious at the many blogs covering this question, and tempers are rising in the comments appended to those of bloggers that have a direct interest in the outcome. A particularly contentious issue has been whether Ecma is trying to make it as easy as possible, or is trying to make it as difficult as possible while still scoring PR points, for interested parties to view proposed dispositions of comments, and whether it does, or does not, have the latitude under ISO rules to be more transparent. The fairly opaque, and sometimes contradictory nature of those rules, has not made the debate any easier, and gives rise to the possibility of confusion, at best, and serious mistakes, at worst, as Pamela Jones pointed out at Groklaw this morning.
The result is that there will be very little real data available to the general public until Ecma opens the curtains on January 19. And the import of what little data does become available is usually the subject of instant disagreement.
With that as prelude, I've pasted in the text of a press release at the end of this blog entry that Ecma issued yesterday. The release gives only a peek at some of the issues addressed in the new dispositions, giving varying degrees of detail on each area highlighted - but that's more than we've had to go on so far. Here is my summary of the press release and its significance, when viewed in the context of other reliable, available information:
Progress status (numerical) - The number of comments posted at the password protected Ecma site is now 1,795, representing 51% of all of the comments originally submitted (the press release says "by the 87 voting countries," but I believe that the total number of countries that actually submitted comments, as compared to the number of countries eligible to vote, was lower). The press release also says that Ecma is on track to complete its work by mid-January.Despite the meagerness of the sampling of recommendations described in the press release, it is possible to get an idea of the degree to which Ecma and Microsoft are willing to go in order to secure a final, favorable vote. While I would invite those with a technical background to give their more informed opinions in comments to this blog entry, some of these changes strike me as being non-trivial at the technical level.
Progress status (difficulty) - According to Microsoft's Oliver Bell in a blog posting on the same press release, the previously posted dispositions largely covered the easy comments, and with this batch, the harder issues are now being addressed
Transparency - The press release states that "These proposed comment dispositions will be available to National Bodies via a website portal in order to solicit feedback from National Bodies to the Project Editor, in application of the ISO/IEC confidentiality principles." As earlier noted, this touches on the very heated issue of whether access has been real and commendable, or difficult and exploited for PR purposes. In this context, the use of the word "solicit" in the press release is worthy of note.
Allowing for ISO 8601 Dates - One criticism of OOXML is that it does not utilize existing ISO/IEC standards wherever possible, as is expected of specifications offered for global approval. The press release indicates that in at least the case of dates entered in spreadsheets, Ecma is recommending that DIS 29500 "will be updated to allow date values to be stored using the format defined by the ISO 8601 standard." By using the word "allow" instead of words like "instead" (as elsewhere in the press release) I assume that this may indicate that two alternative methods will be allowed - use of the unique values originally included in OOXML or the ISO values, although we'll have to wait to see the full text of the recommended disposition to be sure.
Internationalized handling of weekdays and weekends - One issue with OOXML that many commentators had fun with in the past was a long-existing Office bug that did not allow certain dates to be associated with the actual day of the week to which they related. I assume that this is the issue that is described in the press release as follows: "ECMA-376 allowed for a week that begins on Sunday or Monday, but not a week that begins on any other day, such as Saturday." The release says that a variety of possible resolutions, rather than a single recommendation, have been offered on this point.
Language tags - This is another case of OOXML utilizing unique tags, rather than available international standards ("ECMA-376 used a set of integer values to identify the language applied to regions of a document.") Ecma is apparently recommending that DIS 29500 be amended to adopt the existing conventions. In this case, it appears that this would be the only, rather than an alternative, method, as the press release uses the word "instead."
Page Borders - One of the most significant differences between ODF and OOXML is the level of detail that each mandates. In the case of ODF, that level seeks to strike a balance between achieving interoperability between applications while allowing room for value-adding differentiation in other ways. OOXML, in contrast, is heavily weighted towards ensuring that all features of legacy Office documents can be replicated with near-perfect fidelity in OOXML compliant applications, with concomitant restrictions on flexibility in implementation. That difference was perhaps nowhere better demonstrated than by OOXML's specifying in detail all c. 200 borders available in Word. It appears that rather than narrowing this list, Ecma will recommend that additional, custom borders could be used as well.
Usage of ISO standards for grammars - Ecma will recommend once again that certain unique spreadsheet and word processing elements included in Ecma 376 instead conform to an existing ISO standard (again, it appears that this would be a switch, rather than allowing unique and ISO grammars as alternatives).
How wide a peek? - Not very wide. As noted in the press release, " These are obviously just a subset of the 1,795 proposed comment dispositions published to date."
There is another question, though, that IBM's Bob Sutor mentioned in a blog entry on the same Ecma press release yesterday: If Microsoft commits to implement these changes in Office in an early service pack if DIS 29500 is approved, I assume that the work required of it would be non-trivial as well. Hopefully, it will commit to do so, or the changes to DIS 29500 would be academic, given the central role of Office in the whole rationale for the standard to exist and be adopted in the first place. Absent actual implementation by Microsoft, all of the efforts of all of those involved would be wasted.
In the months ahead, forces on both sides will be covering all information in great detail and, to put it mildly, each from their own perspective. I'll be doing the same, striving for objectivity while acknowledging my own hope that ODF will become quite successful in the public and private marketplace.
And by the way: if you haven't yet checked out my new eBook in progress on ODF and OOXML called War of the Words, check it out.
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New set of proposed dispositions posted, including more positive changes to the Ecma Office Open XML formats – Dispositions now proposed for more than half of National Bodies’ comments
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The ISO/IEC DIS 29500 Project Editor is on track to produce a final document by mid-January 2008, containing proposed dispositions of all comments received during the ballot period. Today, Ecma TC45 is publishing proposed dispositions to a number of additional comments. Today’s posting brings the total of comments with proposed dispositions to 1,795, or 51% of the 3,522 total comments received across all 87 voting countries.
In response to the comments provided by National Standards Bodies around the world, Ecma is offering numerous changes to the Open XML standard that will ultimately improve the format.
Ecma, together with the Editor, will continue to review the remaining National Body comments in the weeks ahead, and provide proposed dispositions as quickly as possible leading up to the mid-January deadline. These proposed comment dispositions will be available to National Bodies via a website portal in order to solicit feedback from National Bodies to the Project Editor, in application of the ISO/IEC confidentiality principles.
Ecma looks forward to continued cooperation and collaboration with ISO, IEC, and ISO/IEC JTC 1.
This update proposes some significant changes that we believe address a number of the National Bodies’ concerns. We believe these changes strengthen the Open XML standard, better serving its users. Examples include but are not limited to:
1 Allowing for ISO-8601 Dates
ECMA-376, the original Open XML standard adopted by Ecma, assigned a unique numeric value to each date in a spreadsheet, in order to improve the speed of date calculations. Based on the comments received from some National Bodies on this issue, DIS 29500 will be updated to allow date values to be stored using the format defined by the ISO 8601 standard.
2 Internationalized handling of weekdays and weekends
ECMA-376 allowed for a week that begins on Sunday or Monday, but not a week that begins on any other day, such as Saturday. Ecma is proposing a comprehensive range of options for what is defined as the first day of the week, and what is defined as the weekend.
3 Language tags
ECMA-376 used a set of integer values to identify the language applied to regions of a document. Ecma is proposing that the language tags specified in the DIS should instead leverage an internationally recognized practice for representing languages, IETF BCP 47. IETF BCP 47 is a Best Current Practices document that incorporates use of the ISO 639 standard for languages, ISO 15924 for scripts, and ISO 3166 for regions. This proposal directly follows recommendations from National Bodies in several countries.
4 Page Borders
ECMA-376 included support for a variety of graphical elements that could be used as page borders. Several National Bodies noted that this closed list of graphical elements was not sufficiently diverse and global in its contents. Based on that feedback, Ecma is proposing to change the Open XML standard to allow for custom page borders. This will enable implementers to determine the best option for including borders relevant to their applications.
5 Usage of ISO standards for grammars
ECMA-376 used its own notation for defining the grammar for some of the more advanced functionality, such as spreadsheet formulas and word processing fields. Several National Bodies noted that the existing grammars in ECMA-376 are non-standard and were not fully described within the DIS. In response to this concern, Ecma proposes to revise the notation for spreadsheet formulas and fields to use an existing ISO standard. Formula notation will now use ISO/IEC 14977:1996 – Syntactic metalanguage – Extended BNF. This proposal improves the ability for implementers to test and validate conformance to the specification.
These are obviously just a subset of the 1,795 proposed comment dispositions published to date. Ecma will continue to work hard to review the remaining comments, and will work closely with the National Bodies to develop proposed dispositions for all of the comments received.