[dot] Key KOffice Developers Talk About KOffice 2 and Open Standards

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1194021253/

From: Sebastian Kügler <sebas at kde.org>
Dept: productivity-and-openness
Date: Friday 02/Nov/2007, @09:34

Key KOffice Developers Talk About KOffice 2 and Open Standards
==============================================================

   KOffice [http://www.koffice.org], the office suite built on KDE
technology and in the KDE Communtiy has recently
[http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=1596080362&rid=-50] gotten a
lot of press, but is still often underrepresented. In this interview,
some key KOffice developers tell us about the recent progress of KDE's
Office suite, about Open Standards and how KOffice plays an active role
in bringing Freedom to users. We have talked to Boudewijn Rempt,
developer of Krita, core KOffice contributor and KOffice release
manager, as well as to David Faure who has been taking part in the OASIS
[http://www.oasis-open.org], the organization that is responsible for
advancing the OpenDocument (ODF) standard.

     David Faure says: We're taking part in the OASIS because we truly
believe in Open Standards. KOffice standardises on OpenDocument. Free
Software and open standards are a perfect match and the way to move
forward for a society to ensure vendor-independent access to its data.
We're actively participating in the OASIS since it matches our value,
and we believe that one strong standard is in the best interest of our
users.

     Boudewijn Rempt gives us an overview over what's happening in the
KOffice community.


A. HOW IS KOFFICE 2 PROGRESSING?
 We had a bit of a slow start -- porting to KDE4 took longer than we
thought. Maybe we started our port a little too early. Large parts of
most applications have been completely rewritten. We're making really
good progress now, across the board of applications. The Google Summer
of Code project to improve OpenDocument support in KWord has been a big
success: we're still not completely done, but confidently expect KOffice
2.0 to have improved support for OpenDocument in key areas such as
spreadsheet and word processing.

B. WHAT WILL BE THE MAIN FEATURES FOR KOFFICE 2?
 We've taken integration to the next level. Applications now offer an
interface optimized for a particular task, but they all use the same
small-grained objects to compose documents from. That means richer
documents, more consistency in the user interface and excellent
expandability.

C. WHAT TARGET USERS DO YOU HAVE IN MIND FOR KOFFICE?
 Right now, home users, students and people running small businesses.
Additionally, KOffice offers a very flexible and rich platform for
implementing office-type applications for specific markets, such as
education or vertical markets.

D. CAN YOU EXPLAIN SOME PLATFORM ASPECTS OF KOFFICE 2(.X)?
 OpenDocument is totally native for us. KOffice has had a large part in
establishing the standard and continues innovating within the standard
and contributing to new versions of the OpenDocument standard.
OpenDocument really is the platform we are building on, it informs many
of our design decisions, without forcing us to implement an OpenOffice
clone at all.

E. KOFFICE HAS SOME TIME AGO SWITCHED TO OPENDOCUMENT AS DEFAULT FILE
FORMAT. WHAT IS THE MOTIVATION FOR THIS MOVE?
 Cooperation has always been in the forefront of KOffice development. We
developed the libwv2 .doc library together with Abiword, and the libwpd
WordPerfect library together with OpenOffice. Developing our own,
underspecified file format just didn't make any sense when there is a
chance to cooperate on a widely used, rigorously specified file format.
Besides, we listen to our users and hear that they want to exchange
documents without enforcing their customers, teachers or peers to use
the exactly same application in the exactly same version.

F. WHY DO YOU THINK OPENDOCUMENT IS THE RIGHT THING TO EMBRACE FOR
KOFFICE?
 It's been beneficial in two ways: the KOffice involvement has kept
OpenDocument from becoming the memory dump of OpenOffice internals
detractors so often allege it to be. And KOffice has gained recognition,
compatibility and also quite a few features in the process.

G. THERE IS A WINDOWS VERSION OF SOME OF THE KOFFICE APPLICATIONS COMING
UP. IN HOW FAR DOES THIS NEW PLATFORM INFLUENCE THE WAY THE KOFFICE
COMMUNITY WORKS?
 Well, it's actually *all* of the KOffice applications that will be
available on all three platforms: Unix/X11, OS X and Windows. Not that
that changes much for us: we have a very clear vision of what we want to
achieve, and we're making good progress in that direction. We are ready
to welcome the influx of users the wider availability of KOffice means
-- and actually, we're already get quite a few inquiries about where
people can download our software.

H. RECENTLY, THE ISO STANDARDISATION PROCESS OF OFFICEOPENXML ("OOXML")
HAS GAINED A LOT OF PUBLIC ATTENTION. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF
OPENXML AS ISO STANDARD NEXT TO ODF FOR FREE SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS?

     The standardisation process of OfficeOpenXML has turned sour, not
in the least because Microsoft couldn't resist the temptation to cheat.
Right now we're seeing evidence of a concerted campaign at discrediting
OpenDocument vis-a-vis OfficeOpen XML. That's unfortunate, to say the
least.

     If OfficeOpen XML becomes an ISO standard, we will, in all likely
hood, still not spend time on supporting it. The standard is enormous,
very complex and to a large extent so badly specified that a full
implementation is probably even harder than implementing the old
Microsoft binary file formats. Add to that patent encumbrances and
problems with copyrighted elements -- and our conclusion is that we
prefer to concentrate on making KOffice a great set of applications that
are satisfying to use and satisfying to develop.


I. THERE WERE RUMORS ABOUT AN ODF LIBRARY IN KDE. CAN YOU UPDATE US ON
THE PROGRESS THERE?
 We're committed to developing such a library. Only today, some first
steps have been set in the direction of that goal. Still baby steps, and
the ODF library won't be available with KDE 4.0 or even KDE 4.1, but we
are keeping that goal in mind when developing KOffice.

J. RECENTLY, MORE AND MORE GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES AND PUBLIC BODIES
EMBRACE ODF AS THEIR DEFAULT DOCUMENT STANDARD. CAN YOU GIVE US REASONS
FOR THAT?
 There are many good reasons for governments and public bodies to
support OpenDocument, and no good reasons not to support it.
OpenDocument documents can be read and edited on every computing
platform, present and future. Wide availability is good for citizens, a
solidly specified, unencumbered standard is good for archiving, and the
very implementability means a free market with genuine competition,
which is good for the budget.
     Thank you very much. I'm personally really looking forward to
KOffice 2.0. I think it's the office suite with the greatest potential
in the market right now.