2008/6/20 Sander Marechal <>:
> The problem seems to be that, at the moment, the data does not arrive
> intact. It's not that the layout isn't pixel-perfect the same between
> applications, but the layout can vary wildly between applications. This
> presents a problem because indexes, references and table-of-contents,
> page numbering, etcetera are all wrong for example. The longer the
> document, the more wrong they are.
Yes. As far as the user is concerned, the layout is part of the document.
You can tell users "LALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU, YOU'RE WRONG TO CARE" but
it won't make them not care.
> Along comes application Bar and it renders differently. Now the heading
> would be rendered halway down a page, or near the top. Because of the
> manual page-break you now have a nearly empty page in your document. Ugly...
Yes. Saying "what are you worrying about, all the words are there" is
grossly missing the point. The user cares, and it's a relevant part of
interoperability. It's not the whole of interoperability, but it's not
none of it.
- d.
