From rbk@louisiana.edu Tue May 23 18:03:38 2000 Received: from marnier.ucs.usl.edu (root@ucs-gw.usl.edu [130.70.40.2]) by dkuug.dk (8.9.2/8.9.2) with ESMTP id SAA64414 for ; Tue, 23 May 2000 18:03:37 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from rbk@louisiana.edu) Received: from u8174 (rbk5287@goedel.usl.edu [130.70.49.203]) by marnier.ucs.usl.edu (8.9.1/8.9.1/ucs-mx-host_1.3-virus) with SMTP id LAA13354; Tue, 23 May 2000 11:03:07 -0500 (CDT) Message-Id: <2.2.32.20000523160202.03826bdc@pop.usl.edu> X-Sender: rbk5287@pop.usl.edu X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 2.2 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Tue, 23 May 2000 11:02:02 -0500 To: j.l.schonfelder@liverpool.ac.uk, Miles Ellis From: "R. Baker Kearfott" Subject: Re: (SC22WG5.1801) Use of Word to distribute documents Cc: "WG5 members (list)" Greetings, former colleagues. FYI, and for what it's worth, there is free software, "ps2pdf" to convert from PostScript to PDF. I think it comes with Ghostscript. Baker At 02:35 PM 5/23/00 +0100, Lawrie Schonfelder wrote: >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 > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------- R. Baker Kearfott, rbk@louisiana.edu (337) 482-5346 (fax) (337) 482-5270 (work) (337) 981-9744 (home) URL: http://interval.louisiana.edu/kearfott.html Department of Mathematics, University of Louisiana at Lafayette Box 4-1010, Lafayette, LA 70504-1010, USA ---------------------------------------------------------------