From j.l.schonfelder@liverpool.ac.uk Tue May 23 15:38:36 2000 Received: from mailhub2.liv.ac.uk (mailhub2.liv.ac.uk [138.253.100.95]) by dkuug.dk (8.9.2/8.9.2) with ESMTP id PAA63777 for ; Tue, 23 May 2000 15:38:34 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from j.l.schonfelder@liverpool.ac.uk) Received: from pcmail1.liv.ac.uk ([138.253.252.13]) by mailhub2.liv.ac.uk with esmtp (Exim 2.12 #1) id 12uEt3-0002DD-00; Tue, 23 May 2000 14:38:21 +0100 Received: from [138.253.134.46] (helo=liv-dialup.liv) by pcmail1.liv.ac.uk with smtp (Exim 2.12 #1) id 12uEt1-0005RC-00; Tue, 23 May 2000 14:38:20 +0100 From: Lawrie Schonfelder Reply-To: j.l.schonfelder@liverpool.ac.uk To: Miles Ellis Cc: "WG5 members (list)" Subject: Re: (SC22WG5.1796) Use of Word to distribute documents In-Reply-To: <200005221523.RAA60062@dkuug.dk> Message-ID: Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 14:35:24 +0100 (GMT Daylight Time) Priority: NORMAL X-Mailer: Simeon for Win32 Version 4.1.5 Build (43) X-Authentication: IMSP MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=US-ASCII Everyone can read pdf, the reader is freely available, but you need relatively expensive prorietry software that is not all that widely used (relative to word) to create it. As far as I know 90+% of people who use PCs or MACs are likely to use WORD. If you are using Linux or solaris then there is the free downloadable star-office product that can read and write word format documents perfectly well. This is also available for use on PCs if you happen to prefer CORAL or LOTUS wordprocessing products. On Mon, 22 May 2000 16:24:10 +0100 Miles Ellis wrote: > On 22/5/00 3:37 pm John Reid said: > > > Word is currently used to distribute some SC22 documents and I am > > objecting. Here is a short paper for the meeting in Japan in September. > > Does anyone have any comments? > > > > John. > > > > .......................... > > > > > > Proposal: That SC22 cease to use Word for document distribution > > > > John Reid, WG5 Convenor > > > > Word is not a standard and is unsafe (it provides a mechanism for > > the import of viruses). It is not readily available to those running > > systems other than Microsoft's. Marisa Peacock reports that she can > > easily circulate documents in HTML or PDF instead. > > > > I complained about Word being used to distribute documents several years ago > for exactly the same reasons that John cites. When Bill Rinehuls was the > Secretariat for SC22 he used to distribute documents in text form wherever > possible, and used pdf on most other occasions. Since pdf is an acceptable > format in which to submit standards, etc, to ISO for publication, unlike > PostScript, this always seemed a sensible approach. > > Most people can read standard HTML - whatever that is - and it is unlikely > that any standards documents would contain Explorer or Netscape proprietary > extensions which would cause problems for some people. So HTML is probably > OK for simpler documents. However, pdf is preferable, IMHO, for draft > standards, etc, simply because it is acceptable for the final document and > HTML is not. > > Miles > > -------------- > Dr Miles Ellis > Director: Educational Technology Resources Centre > University of Oxford, 37 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JF, ENGLAND > > Telephone: +44 1865 270528 Fax: +44 1865 270527 > Email: Miles.Ellis@etrc.ox.ac.uk > miles@oph.u-net.com (home) > WWW: http://www.etrc.ox.ac.uk/information/staff/Miles/Miles_Ellis.html > -- Lawrie Schonfelder Director, Computing Services Dept. The University of Liverpool, UK, L69 7ZF Phone: 44(151)794 3716, Fax: 44(151)794 3759