xml-dev - Sun StarOffice XML File Format

[Robin Cover <robin@isogen.com>]

In the category of interesting XML applications:
Sun StarOffice XML formats as presented in the recently-
published "StarOffice XML File Format Technical Reference
Manual".

"This manual describes the StarOffice XML file format.
We adopted XML as the new native file format for the
StarOffice suite, replacing the old binary file format.
Our goal is twofold: to have a complete specification 
encompassing all StarOffice components, and to provide 
an open standard for office documents.  In our opinion,
XML is ideal as an open standard because of the free 
availability of XML specifications and document type 
declarations (DTDs), and the XML support for XSL, XSLT,
XLink, SVG, MathML, and many other important and 
emerging standards.  One single XML format applies 
to different types of documents, for example, the 
same definition applies to tables in text documents 
and tables in spreadsheets. . . Each structural 
component in a StarOffice XML document is represented 
by an element, with associated attributes. The structure
of XML documents applies to  all StarOffice applications.
There is no difference between a text document, a
spreadsheet or a drawing, apart from the content."

The provisional DTDs are available from the CVS repository.
The sources for Sun's StarOffice are now available under
"dual licensing": GNU General Public License (GPL),
GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL),
Sun Industry Standard Source License (SISSL).


See:

http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/sgmlnew.html (news item)
http://xml.openoffice.org/xml_spec_draft.pdf (spec)
http://xml.openoffice.org/  (XML formats)
http://www.openoffice.org/license.html (licenses)
http://www.oasis-open.org/cover/starOfficeXML.html (summary)