Re: [libreoffice-users] Re: LO 4.0.3.3: 'Insert: Horizontal rule' is missing

Hi :)
You are making it sound more complicated than it really is.  

1.  There is already a bug-report about this.  I doubt everything that anyone does is 100% perfect 
100% of the time.  When problems are noticed in LO a bug-report gets posted and then hopefully get 
worked on.  Similarly with other programs using the ODF formats.  Even if the bug-report doesn't 
get fixed quickly then at least there is a record of the problem.  If the problem affects enough 
people then it probably gets listed in the Release Notes. The question is how can we attract more 
devs and once they have started working on some parts of LO how can we attract them into fixing old 
problems rather than just going off to some other project?  

2.  Formats are likely to grow and change in the future.  LO uses ODF 1.2 (Extended) and hopefully 
the departures from normal 1.2 are documented.  If you want to return to pure 1.2 then it's fairly 
easy to look up the ISO standard for that.  If you want to return to 1.1, or the 1.0 then again 
it's reasonably easy to look up the specs for those too.  Those specs closely match the way it's 
implemented in the various programs that use the format.  

3.  You can find programs that still use the older formats.  Even LO can be switched to using older 
formats.  See 
Tools - Options - "Load/Save" - General

4.  The devs have created a new format for LO that wraps up the 3 older formats, 1.2 (not 
extended), 1.1 and 1.0 and are calling it something like "1.2 Extended (compat)".  Files created 
using that format will be able to be read by legacy software that can only read 1.0 or only 1.1.  
Presumably at some point we are going to find the options listed in 
Tools - Options - "Load/Save" - General
to drop from 4 formats back down to 2.  


The whole point of ODF is that even if or when programs do abandon a particular version of it that 
format is still readable because the format is implemented as specified.  The point is NOT to 
condemn us all to sticking with an unchanging format for the next few hundred years!  Change is 
inevitable.  Documenting those changes is part of the aim of ODF so that old files can be read.  

This is going waaay off-topic again.  
Regards from 
Tom :)  






> ________________________________
> From: Ken Springer <snowshed1@q.com>
> To: users@global.libreoffice.org 
> Sent: Friday, 14 June 2013, 0:32
> Subject: [libreoffice-users] Re: LO 4.0.3.3: 'Insert: Horizontal rule' is missing
>
>
> On 6/13/13 5:12 PM, Tom Davies wrote:
> > Hi :)
> > Hmm, there are many reasons for preferring non-MS.  Backwards compatibility is just 1 of the 
> > issues.  Current compatibility with it's own current formats is another.  A third is whether 
> > it's current formats work with non-MS products that do follow the OOXML ISO standard.
> > Regards from
> > Tom :)
>
> Preferring MS or not, or any other format, isn't the point here.
>
> It's accessing the old files regardless of format, which even LO appears 
> to be abandoning.  You can't have it both ways, use ODT because the 
> standards will remain unchanged so old files can be accessed while 
> accepting a decision that prevents the accurate opening of the old files.
>
>
> -- 
> Ken
>
> Mac OS X 10.8.4
> Firefox 20.0
> Thunderbird 17.0.5
> LibreOffice 4.0.3.3
>
>
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