>Nobody knows whether SC34 will ever come up with anything useful.
When the committee now known as JTC1/SC34 was founded, Bill Gates was
just working on a BASIC interpreter for the MITS Altair. By the time
Microsoft had its IPO, SC18/WG8 (which became SC34), had already sent
SGML to DIS ballot.
Had SC34 and its predecessors not come up with anything useful, there
would be no XML, neither would OASIS and the present committee exist,
nor would we be worrying about whether YEARFRAC in ODF, OOXML, or any
other XML specirication is correct.
Both ODF and OOXML landed in SC34 because SC34 continues to do useful,
if contentious, work.
Jim Mason
Past Chairman, SC34
