[dot] KOffice Developers Meet with KDE Core People for ODF Infrastructure

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1177773146/

From: Inge Wallin <inge at lysator.liu.se>
Dept: an-open-future
Date: Saturday 28/Apr/2007, @08:12

KOffice Developers Meet with KDE Core People for ODF Infrastructure
===================================================================

   KOffice [http://koffice.org/], the KDE office suite, has always stood
behind the OpenDocument Format
[http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/] (ODF) as an industry
standard. Now with KOffice 2.0 around the corner, with OpenOffice.org
quickly becoming a new leader, and with Microsoft to release its own
so-called "open" format, ODF and the interoperability that it promises
is more important than ever. The KOffice developers will meet in Berlin
during the weekend of May 12th-13th to do as much ODF-centered
development as possible. Read more to find out what this can mean for
KDE at large.

     First a little background.  In May 2006 the OASIS Open Document
Format for Office Applications (the OpenDocument Format) was voted an
ISO standard for office documents. KOffice is one of the initiators of
the format, and has its own representative on the OASIS technical
committee: David Faure. Since KOffice 1.5, OpenDocument has been the
default file format, making it the first office suite in the world to
implement the format.

     During the last year the KOffice developers have been working on
the next generation of KOffice, based on Qt and kdelibs version 4. This
will bring new qualities to KOffice, like improved text layout, better
embedding of new data types, and also support for new platforms like
Windows and MacOS X.

     With a new platform (qt4, kdelibs4) comes new possibilities. The
KOffice architecture has changed much since the 1.x days and therefore
much of the old code has to be reimplemented. The KOffice developers
will gather at the KDAB offices in Berlin during the weekend May
12th-13th to design the new ODF infrastructure and also implement as
much of it as possible during 2 frantic days.

     That is not all, however. Many people in KDE recognize the
importance of ODF as a standard that ensures interoperability. The
meeting will also include the participation of Aaron Seigo, who will
represent kdelibs and other parts of KDE. The idea is to create a
library like kdepimlibs (perhaps to be named kdedoclibs) that will be
usable by all KDE applications to create and view ODF files.

     KOffice will always be a prime ODF editor suite, but there is no
reason to believe that other applications won't need to create or view
simple ODF documents. Tobias König of okular [http://okular.org/] will
also be present at the meeting to present his view on what is needed to
implement effective ODF support in okular. Other potential uses are the
creation of tables or diagrams from kde-edu [http://edu.kde.org/]
applications, invoices from Kraft (see last Akademy presentations), and
so on. There is no end to the potential possibilities.

     This OpenDocument library will not be ready for KDE 4.0, but a
preliminary goal is to finish the design and also have the first version
of it ready for KOffice 2.1 and KDE 4.1. We will produce reports on the
progress during and after the meeting so that the KDE community is kept
well informed about the progress. We believe that this initiative will
help make KDE the premier desktop for business and school use and also
produce a strong platform for years of exciting future development.