Commentary: ISO should kick OOXML off the standards bus

By Russell Ossendryver on January 26, 2008 (2:00:00 PM)

http://www.linux.com/feature/125630

OOXML is defective - we have to live with it !

No !
We can't live with it.

Microsoft posted the XML based to ECMA and later on to ISO to get it approved as an international standard for documents. But the purpose is to rubber stamp Microsoft Office.

Listen to this: Microsoft made a mistake back in the nineteenhundred-and-nineties. It was just a small bug, but it still lives in Microsoft Office. Thats a long time ago, but Microsoft is guaranteeing backward compatibility with old documents.

So that bug is implemented in the International standard OOXML as a feature. So, if you want to create a document based on this standard document format, you have to know about a bug in Microsoft Office and implement that in your application. How come ? Because Microsoft says so. Backward compatibility (with old bugs) are more important than building a robust document format.

What is that bug then ?
Well, it's not one bug, but several bugs in Excel spreadsheet.

One of them is that Microsoft has a function called 'workdays'. The purpose is to calculate the number of days between two dates, except for weekends. Microsoft assumed that all people in the whole world has the same good as the Americans and that we all keep the same weekdays off ( http://www.dis29500.org/gr-113 ).

This was back in the nineties. That must be gone now. No. Microsoft says:
We agree that the implementation of WORKDAY makes assumptions as to which days of the week are weekdays versus weekends. In order to maintain backwards compatibility with the corpus of existing documents, no semantic change will be made to the function. A spreadsheet application could create a new function which would allow for specification of which days of the week are workdays.

First of all, I consider this very disrespectful to all people who doesn't share religion with the developers in Redmond. And second, note the last paragraph: It's up to you to correct a Microsoft bug in your application.

Now it's getting operational :-)

First it was strategical decision in Folketinget (the Danish parliament) in summer 2006. This summer 2007 the agreement between government and the Danish municipals was a fact. And now we are getting close to the operational level. It all should start on January 1th. 2008, where all Danish authorities must be able to receive both ODF and OOXML documents.

A few days ago the Danish IT- and Tele agency published a 'manual' for the authorities. I think the manual as it is leaves the spirit of B103 behind and leaves the authorities with a choice of 'make he easy choice' with no respect for the original purpose and spirit of the resolution.

The manual (in Danish) can be found here: http://dokumentformater.oio.dk/billedmappe-til-dokumentformat-hjemmesiden/leverancer/62451-v4j-vejledning_-_rapport_tdh.pdf

There is a two week hearing period for this paper, and I will try to put rejections and comments.

Thanks to Jesper Lund Stocholm to direct my attention to this.

More scandals revealed

Some time ago (just a few days later than the Swedish scandal was revealed), one of the members of the Danish TC said, that the process in Denmark had been very serious and fair. Quote from my blog:

A representative from The municipal of Århus, Jens Kjellerup, says that the meetings in Denmark was alright and fair (http://www.computerworld.dk/art/41082).

And the result was: Consensus NO !

I am proud to be Danish on such good day.

But now, after the result has been published, more and more details is coming out of the dark. It seems as if Microsoft in Denmark has playing dirty tricks during the process too. Of cause Microsoft in Denmark denies that they have tried to put any pressure on their business partners. But they have send this letter (Letter to business partners) and this e-mail (e-mail to some business partners). From an anonymous source (Microsoft business partner), we hear that he felt a huge pressure (http://www.version2.dk/artikel/3759).

How come ?

You must know about how it works, that Microsoft business partner thing - If Microsoft likes you, you will get leads. And leads is cash. Microsoft never sell software directly. Everything goes through the partner channel, and if Microsoft recieves an order from a customer directly, they will post this as a lead to one of their partners. The partner will then post an order with Microsoft and get commission like 30% of the turnover. Leads is cash.

In one of the letters, Microsoft asked if the partner would be willing to answer questions from a journalist called Thomas Breinstrup from the newspaper Berlingske Tidende.

Translation of the words:

Would you take a position and contact the National IT- and Tele agency ?
Can Berlingske Tidende, Thomas Breinstrup call you and ask some questions about your opinion ?
Finally, could you contact Danish Standards about the subject ?

The problem was, that Thomas Breinstrup didn't know anything about this letter before yesterday.

Ask if it's clever to misuse one of the most respected and well spoken Danish journalists ? No. It's wise to stay friends with the press. One of the headlines today was: "Microsoft lobbying must have consequenses" and another "Corrupt countires love Microsoft standards".

No news (is good news ?)

I expected news about the voting in the Danish TC yesterday. Sorry, bu I haven't been able to find any anyone who can tell me anything. Why ?

Probably because the TC couldn't reach consensus. This is actually not a surprise. I hope to come up with some detail over the weekend.

The Netherlands proposes revised procedures at ISO

Finally.

The Netherlands will abstain from voting. Not because they are happy about it, but because the procedures demands an abstention. It has appeared that it is actually impossible to vote no because Microsoft continuously obstructs the work.

On this site: ISOC.nl regrets absence of Netherlands decision on OOXML
Michiel Leenaars writes:

ISOC.nl recommends that the ISO procedures - and more specific the Fast Track procedure - be adapted significantly to better deal with controversial standards like DIS 29500/Office Open XML in order for ISO to maintain relevant. This includes demanding two interoperable and independent full implementations prior to accepting a submission for a Fast Track procedure.

Michiel is member of the Dutch committee.

Let's hear from other countries about this issue.

...and what about ISO organization ?

Pieterh reflects in this blogpost, on, what impact the OOXML ballot in ISO will have on ISO as organization. It is very interesting thoughts about how ISO can be taken over by vulnerable attacks.

If Megatron can bully and buy ISO, then ISO is dead. No standard that is bought in blood is worth having, and the standards body that accepts such a controversial process is signing its own death warrant.

For more than a lifetime, ISO has been the organization to ask for a standardization if it was serious. But what happens now, if ISO is no longer creditable ? Which standard should we trust then ? The result will be, that a jungle of small organizations will try to take over the position from ISO. Lots of countries will rely more on national standardization committees and we will end up with hundreds of future standards.

Is Microsoft taking over ISO ?

The Danish technical standard committee (DS) that is to vote on EOOXML is to become an international ISO standard is taken over by Microsoft partners. 17 out of 31 members are Microsoft partners or in other way associated with Microsoft.

Is the ISO organization totally gone to sleep ?

This is undermining the authority of the organization and we can no longer trust, that an ISO standard is a good quality standard. ISO is becoming a a blue rubber stamp where rich companies can get 'approval' of anything, as long as you pay the puppets.

Read the Danish article here: http://epn.dk/erhverv_samfund/article1022249.ece

Sign the petition agianst OOXML

Please sign this petition against OOXML getting approved as an international ISO standard:

I ask the national members of ISO to vote "NO" in the ballot of ISO DIS 29500 (Office OpenXML or OOXML format) for the following reasons:

1. There is already a standard ISO26300 named Open Document Format (ODF): a dual standard adds costs, uncertainty and confusion to industry, government and citizens;
2. There is no provable implementation of the OOXML specification: Microsoft Office 2007 produces a special version of OOXML, not a file format which complies with the OOXML specification;
3. There is missing information from the specification document, for example how to do a autoSpaceLikeWord95 or useWord97LineBreakRules;
4. More than 10% of the examples mentioned in the proposed standard do not validate as XML;
5. There is no guarantee that anybody can write a software that fully or partially implements the OOXML specification without being liable to patent damages or patent license fees by Microsoft;
6. This standard proposal conflicts with other ISO standards, such as ISO 8601 (Representation of dates and times), ISO 639 (Codes for the Representation of Names and Languages) or ISO/IEC 10118-3 (cryptographic hash);
7. There is a bug in the spreadsheet file format which forbids to enter any date before the year 1900: such bugs affects the OOXML specification as well as software versions such as Microsoft Excel 2000, XP, 2003 or 2007.
8. This standard proposal has not been created by bringing together the experience and expertise of all interested parties (such as the producers, sellers, buyers, users and regulators), but by Microsoft alone.

http://www.noooxml.org/petition

ISO Objections - Dismiss it

The Danish subcommittee under DS called S-142/U-34 has a hearing that closes today, July 2nd. Now that the hearing is over, the subcommittee will decide how Denmark will vote in ISO.

The Community behind OpenOffice.org in Denmark has objected to the ISO approval of OOXML or ISO/IEC DIS 29500 or ECMA-376 or "Office Open XML File Formats" being an ISO standard. Here you can find the objections: http://doc.oooforum.dk/Filer/ISO_kommentar_OpenOffice_org.pdf

While I was working on this document, I had the opportunity to get some detailed knowledge of the content in the 6.000 pages specification. And some of it is quite overwhelming. For example have a look at this document from the ODF Alliance: http://www.odfalliance.org/resources/The%20Technical%20Case%20Against%20OOXML.pdf on page 4: Cultural and Linguistic Adaptability -- Does it consider different cultures and languages?

Read it and read it again.

The answer to that question is no ! The specification is cultural and religious discriminating. If you are a person from the rich part of the christian world, everything will be fine. But if you don't consider the American way of living as an interest of yours, you can find you another document format.

This is disrespectful and this should alone cause the ISO organization to dismiss the specification. Shame on you !

I must get to it

The OOXML ballot is coming close.
Here in Denmark, there is a hearing going on now. The deadline is July 2nd. Here e it is a committee under DS (Dansih Standards). I already received the standard form from DS to submit my objections. Believe it or not, it's a spreadsheet. guess what file format ?

I have spend some time researching and planning my approach to this. I have received a lot of good ideas from all kinds of communities over the last few month, while I was working on the case in the Parliament.

• I'll probably use the grokdoc EOOXML Objections as a good base
• Then I'll add a little "Achieving Openness: a closer look at ODF & OOXML" from Sam Hiser
• All spiced up with a little "Microsoft Office OpenXML (OOXML) is a garbage standard"

Yes, that's go to e my recipe for a good objection. What do you think ?

Make sure to make your contribution to the ballot on time in your country. Every objection is important.