On Tue, Nov 15, 2011 at 4:18 PM, Nick Hilliard <nick(_at_)inex(_dot_)ie> wrote:
you feel that the IETF should hold off supporting a 5 year old file format,
supported by the majority of computers in the world?
Please excuse my naivety. I'm new around here.
I'm not exactly sure of all of the IETF procedures for such things,
but how about coming up with a simple policy about file formats?
Something like this:
-------
In the interest of
1) Facilitating work
2) Making its work available to as wide an audience as possible, and
3) Lowering barriers to participation...
...the IETF tries to the best of its ability to use open file formats
unencumbered by royalties, patents, trade secrets, and other legal or
obfuscation muck that gets in the way of participation by all persons.
Whenever possible, formats are chosen that do not limit access due to
financial ability or physical impairment.
One of the simplest formats of all, plain text, has served the IETF
and other groups for decades. Keeping the simplicity and open nature
of that format in mind, the IETF's League of Extraordinary File
Formatters [or whatever committee you dream up] may choose other file
formats to be used for interchange.
Whenever preparing files to share with others, please consider making
the content in the files available in multiple formats. For now, the
following formats are considered "Generally Regarded As Safe (GRAS)":
- plain text (encoding?)
- PDF (with restrictions)
- HTML (some version, no scripting?)
- JPG, PNG
- Ogg Vorbis
- Ogg Theora
- [ Etc... ]
If you wish to make a document available in a format not in the
current GRAS list, please make a version of that document available in
a GRAS format (marked as a translation). Make sure that the
GRAS-formatted document retains as much of the content and other
information from the original document as possible. If content or
functionality are lost, please document the differences in an
accompanying document "<translated filename>_lost-in-translation.txt"
For example:
my-lovely-presentation_v1.0.ppt
my-lovely-presentation_v1.0-translation.pdf
my-lovely-presentation_v1.0-translation.pdf_lost-in-translation.txt
To make it possible for people to view the GRAS file formats, we have
assembled a list of compatible software for multiple operating
systems:
[ put in a table of free/Free software for each OS here ]
-----
To maximize compatibility, it could be prudent for the IETF to only
choose file formats that are (as Nick mentions above) 5 years old or
older. Of course, there could be exceptions on a case-by-case basis.
Would the creation of some such spec/committee be helpful?
-- Robinson
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