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FSF India on electronic government
The Free Software Foundation of India has submitted a lengthy opinion to
India's Department of Information Technology on a proposed electronic
government initiative. In particular, the group argues against the use of
PDF files. "Please note that our objections are not to use of the
PDF format; we accept and recognise PDF as a free format -- 'free as in
freedom'. Our objections are based on the control over the format; and the
inappropriateness in a democratic and sovereign government legislating
mandated use of a format controlled by a corporate body, thus giving
virtual legislative powers to that corporation."
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FSF India on electronic government Posted Dec 29, 2003 16:33 UTC (Mon) by chip (subscriber, #8258) [Link] Jeepers, it's not like this is Word or something.Would it be good enough to specify today's PDF standard, disallowing any future 'enhancements' from Adobe?
FSF India on electronic government Posted Dec 29, 2003 18:02 UTC (Mon) by ncm (subscriber, #165) [Link] It should suffice to specify a PDF version, and codify the intention to revisit the decision when later formats are released. However, restricting use exclusively of that one format would be a mistake. It should be clear that as formats better suited to particular purposes arise, that they may be welcomed, as well, in due time, if satisfy the criteria that PDF version X does.One problem with PDFs is that they have had all the document markup stripped away. Some formats are much better for documents that should be edited. Therefore, they should also consider (e.g.) the OpenOffice and Dia formats, eventually. Probably LaTeX is mature enough already. It would be awkward to have too many formats allowed, because then everybody would need code to handle all of them. There should be a high barrier to acceptance. Formats should have had long use in the private sector, and have demonstrated longevity.
FSF India on electronic government Posted Dec 29, 2003 20:11 UTC (Mon) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link] Probably LaTeX is mature enough already.LaTeX was mature enough, in terms of design and features, back when Windows was not yet in version 1.0. Unfortunately, it never gained ground among non-technical users, and isn't terribly interoperable with other formats. DocBook is nice, and gives you decent interoperability between SGML/XML structured documents, HTML browsable versions and printable versions typeset with TeX (which is still without equal as a typesetting engine for mathematics, and the equal of any commercial typesetting program even for ordinary text). But what's needed is an editor to produce such structured documents that's as easy to use as Microsoft Word. If someone could write such a thing, it could well be the "killer application" for Linux. Conglomerate looks promising.
FSF India on electronic government Posted Dec 30, 2003 7:21 UTC (Tue) by eru (subscriber, #2753) [Link] One problem with PDFs is that they have had all the document markup stripped away. Some formats are much better for documents that should be edited. Therefore, they should also consider (e.g.) the OpenOffice and Dia formats, eventually. Probably LaTeX is mature enough already.The OpenOffice.org formats alone probably would cover the needs of 99% of the documents of any governement! Remember it includes formats for all of word processing, spreadsheets, drawings and slideshows, and everything is openly documented (see http://xml.openoffice.org/general.html).
FSF India on electronic government Posted Dec 29, 2003 18:41 UTC (Mon) by iabervon (subscriber, #722) [Link] I think that they ought to have made the point that formats, includingunencumbered ones, ought to be selected based on technical merit, and that PDF isn't really that good technically for representing content. In particular, PDF is not very good for screen viewing in variably-sized windows, or (as someone else as noted) editting. If your goal in an electronic government, standardizing on a format that's best when printed doesn't make much sense.
FSF India on electronic government Posted Dec 29, 2003 19:02 UTC (Mon) by fandom (subscriber, #4028) [Link] "virtual legislative powers"? Does that mean anything? or is it there tosound scary?
re: legislative powers Posted Dec 29, 2003 19:27 UTC (Mon) by anon1 (guest, #18294) [Link] Since PDF is the standard that the government would use, and Adobe hascontrol over PDF, Adobe has control over the standard the government would use. This is the same company which sued a programmer for breaking their "encryption" on PDF files. Ed
re: legislative powers Posted Dec 30, 2003 1:05 UTC (Tue) by clugstj (subscriber, #4020) [Link] Oh, please...You would specify a version of PDF that you would standardize on. The only way Adobe has any control over you is if you were stupid enough to standardize on PDF without specifying a version (which everyone that uses Microsoft Word essentially does).
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