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SC 34 meetings in Stockholm last week


Stockholm dawn
The weather was mostly grey, and the days busy, limiting photo taking time …

 

I have just returned from a week of meetings of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 in Stockholm, Sweden. Here's an update on what happened ...

WG 1

WG 1 met on the Monday (as usual, we "blaze the trail", working out how the public transport works, locating nearby bars, etc).

Our main project over the last 8 years has been the DSDL project, a multi-part standard for XML schema languages. The final parts of this jigsaw are falling into place: at this meeting we agreed to ballot DSDL Part 11, a specification being co-developed with W3C for Schema Association. Jirka Kosek – a project editor – is the driving force behind this work in WG 1. Rick Jelliffe has also completed a draft of a revision to DSDL Part 3 (more commonly known as Schematron), which will now be sent to ballot to collect National Body feedback.

ISO Zip

The need for an "ISO Zip" standard has long been recognized; I remember this topic first being raised in SC 34 during four years ago at our Seoul meeting. No progress has been made since then, but there have been some problems caused by the lack of a standard — not least the sudden disappearance of a document that ODF relies on!

As the number of XML-in-Zip formats mushrooms, WG 1 has now decided to grasp this nettle and propose a project for "Document Packaging" which will aim to deliver a minimal (yet compatible) file format specification particularly suitable for XML-in-Zip document formats. If successful the new standard will be usable as a drop-in replacement for the currently non-standard references to an over-featured (for their purposes) ZIP specification used by such formats as OOXML, ODF and EPUB.

The New Work Item Proposal was presented to the SC 34 plenary where it was agreed (without dissent) that it should be balloted. National Bodies will comment over the next three months and their responses considered at the Tokyo meetings in September.

An unpleasant surprise

Over the last few years I have been editing a project for Extensible Datatypes (ISO/IEC 19757-5, currently a FCD). As is usual with experts in SC 34, the text is prepared using schema-governed XML and processed into XSL-FO for rendering to PDF according to ISO's layout specification — we have a specification, TR 9573-11 AMD, specifically for that purpose.

This work on my text is nearly done, so imagine my surprise to learn that, all of a sudden, ITTF is now only accepting work that is in "Word format" (on inquiry, this means Microsoft® Word™ 2007). The decision has caused dismay among many SC 34 experts and reeks more of the short-term commercial interests of NBs' commercial publishing wings, than of any concern for document quality, adaptability or long-term preservation. It is a shame that ownership of Windows and MS Office is now apparently a prerequisite for being an JTC 1 Project Editor, and I can imagine more than a few eyebrows being raised if any future International Standard version of ODF needs to prepared using Microsoft Word!

WG 4

WG 4 (OOXML - ISO/IEC 29500 - maintenance) met for two and a half days. There are so many strands of activity here deserving of comment that I will write a separate blog post on this later this week. Stand by!

WG 6

WG 6 (ODF - ISO/IEC 26300 - maintenance) met on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning and was well-attended. The main work of this group is production of an International Standard version of ODF 1.1 that rolls in errata to date, and excellent progress is being made on this. Special praise must go to Dennis Hamilton for pulling an all-nighter (remotely participating from Seattle) and addressing some of the gnarlier problems of text production!

In general, it is good to see the suspicions of the past years now firmly set aside and all participants pulling together in the right direction for the good of ODF. It is also especially good to see the process now working better (if not perfectly) and admitting an International dimension to ODF maintenance; this success is due in no small part to the diligence and diplomacy of the WG 6 Convenor, Francis Cave who, it was jokingly suggested at the Plenary, should be appointed for a term of 30 years as convenor, rather than the normal three!

St Francis
Francis Cave, WG 6 convenor

The CJK lobby

As is usual at these meetings, various kinds of lobbying for various kinds of thing were taking place. Perhaps the prize for most effective operators must go to the CJK (China, Japan, Korea) participants who are working hard to raise awareness of their requirements for page layout and typography. Japan is promoting a project for specifying support for KIHONHANMEN in OOXML and ODF extensions, and plans are being made for a 'Workshop on CJK Issues related to OOXML and ODF extensions' in May (details will appear on the SC 34 web site when available). I wish them well ...

 

CJK
Experts from China, Japan and Korea in discussion

SC 34 WG meetings in Paris last week

The croissants of AFNOR

Last week I was in Paris for a stimulating week of meetings of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 WGs, and as the year draws to a close it seems an opportune time to take the temperature of our XML standards space and look ahead to where we may be going next.

WG 1 (Schema languages)

WG 1 can be thought of as tending to the foundations upon which other SC 34 Standards are built - and of these foundations perhaps none is more important than RELAX NG, the schema language of many key XML technologies including ODFDocBook and the forthcoming MathML 3.0 language. WG 1 discussed a number of potential enhancements to RELAX NG, settling on a modest but useful set which will enhance the language in response to user feedback. 

A proposed new schema language for cross reference validation (including ID/IDREF checking) was also discussed; the question here is whether to have something simple and quick (that addresses the ID/IDREF validation if RELAX NG, say), or whether to develop a more fully-featured language capable of meeting challenges like cross-document cross-reference checking in an OOXML or ODF package. It seems as if WG 1 is strongly inclining towards the latter.

Other work centred on proposing changes for cleaning up the unreasonable licensing restrictions which apply to "freely-available" ISO/IEC standards made available by the ITTF: the click through license here is obviously out-of-date, and text is required to attach to schemas so that they can be used on more liberal, FOSS-friendly terms. (I mentioned this before in this blog entry).

WG 4 (OOXML)

WG 4 had a full agenda. One item of business requiring immediate attention was the resolution of comments accompanying the just-voted-on set of DCOR ballots. These had received wide support from the National Bodies though it was disappointing to see that the two NBs who had voted to disapprove had not sent delegates to the meeting. P-members are obliged both to vote on ballots and attend meetings in SCs and so these nations (Brazil and Malaysia are the countries in question) are not properly honouring their obligation as laid down in the JTC 1 Directives:

3.1.1 P-members of JTC 1 and its SCs have an obligation to take an active part in the work of JTC 1 or the SC and to attend meetings.

I note with approval the hard line taken by the ITTF, who have just forcibly demoted 18 JTC 1 P-members who had become inactive.

Nevertheless, all comments received were resolved and the set of corrigenda will now go forward to publication, making a significant start to cleaning up the OOXML standard.

S/T

The other big topic facing WG 4 was to the thorny problem of what has come to be called the issue of "Strict v Transitional". In other words, deciding on some strategy for dealing with these two variants of the 29500 Standard.

The UK has a clear consensus on the purpose of the two formats. Transitional (aka "T") is (in the UK view) a format for representing the existing legacy of documents in the field (and those which continue to be created by many systems today); no more, and no less. Strict (aka "S") is viewed as the proper place for future innovation around OOXML.

Progress on this topic is (for me) frustratingly slow – ah! the perils of the consensus forming process – but some pathways are beginning to become visible in the swirling mists. In particular it seems there is a mood to issue a statement that the core schemas of T are to be frozen, and that any dangerous features (such as the date representation option blogged about by WG 4 experts Gareth Horton and Jesper Lund Stocholm) are removed from T.

This will go some way to clarify for users what to expect when dealing with a 29500-conformant document. However, I foresee needed work ahead to clarify this still further since within the two variants (Strict and Transitional) there are many sub-variants which users will need to know about. In particular the extensibility mechanism of OOXML (MCE) allows for additional structures to be introduced into documents. And so, is a "Transitional" (or "Strict") document:

  • Unextended ?
  • Extended, but with only standardized extensions ?
  • Extended, but with proprietary extensions ?
  • Extended in a backwards-compatible way relative to the core Standard ?
  • Extended in a backwards-incompatible way ?

I expect WG 4 will need to work on conformance classes and content labelling mechanisms (a logo programme?) to enable implementers to convey with precision what kind of OOXML documents they can consume and emit, and for procurers to specify with precision what they want to procure.

WG 5 (Document interop)

WG 5 continues its work with TR 29166, Open Document Format (ISO/IEC 26300) / Office Open XML (ISO/IEC 29500) Translation Guidelines, setting out the high-level differences between the ISO versions of the OOXML and ODF formats. I attended to hear about a Korean idea for a new work item focussed on the use of the clipboard as an interchange mechanism.

This is interesting because the clipboard presents some particular challenges for implementers. What happens (for example) when a user selects content for copying which does not correspond to well-formed XML (from the middle of one paragraph to the middle of another)? I am interested in seeing exactly what work the Koreans will propose in this space ...

WG 6 (ODF)

Although I had registered for the WG 6 meeting, I had to take the Eurostar home on Thursday and so attempted to participate in Friday's WG 6 meeting by Skype (as much as rather intermittent wi-fi connectivity would allow).

From what I heard of it, the meeting was constructive and business-like, sorting out various items of administrivia and turning attention to the ongoing work of maintaining ISO/IEC 26300 (the International Standard version of ODF).

To this end, it is heartening to see the wheels finally creak into motion:

  • The first ever set of corrigenda to ISO/IEC 26300 has now gone to ballot
  • A second set is on the way, once a mechanism has been agreed how to re-word those bits of the Standard which are unimplementable
  • A new defect report from the UK was considered (many of these comments have already been addressed within OASIS, and so fixes are known)

Most significant of all is the work to align the ISO version of ODF with the current OASIS standard so that ISO/IEC 26300 and ODF 1.1 are technically equivalent. The National Bodies present reiterated a consensus that this was desirable (better, by far, than withdrawing ISO/IEC 26300 as a defunct standard) and are looking forward to the amendment project. The world will, then, have an ISO/IEC version of ODF which is relevant to the marketplace while waiting for a possible ISO/IEC version of ODF 1.2 – as even with a fair wind this is still around two years away from being published as an International Standard.

Records

I'll update this entry with links to documents as they become available. To start with, here are some informal records: :-)

 

Nightcap

SC 34 WG meetings in Paris next week

Once again I feel that bubbling up of almost schoolboy fervour that presages a set of SC 34 meetings. In Paris no less (AFNOR shall be our hosts): the city of love, fine art and rognons à la moutarde.

What is tasty on SC 34’s menu? Well four working groups are meeting next week:

  • WG 1 (which I convene) will be carrying forward its work on foundation standards – particularly the schema languages of DSDL. We have two new (/proposed) projects to discuss: one a schema language focussed on cross-reference validation; one on associating schemas with documents using processing instructions. Probably our most successful schema language, RELAX NG, is due for an update and several new features are up for discussion: keep it coming!
  • WG 4 (OOXML) will continue its intensive maintenance on ISO/IEC 29500 – not least in handling a new set of approved corrigenda (just voted on) and dealing with the day-to-day grind of correction and improvement. There are larger questions to answer too, in particular those which concern the relationship between the Strict and Transitional forms of OOXML. I have led the preparation of a background paper on this which (thanks to the newly open WG 4 mail archive) can be accessed as a public document (PDF). I predict some lively discussion!
  • WG 5 (OOXML/ODF interop) will continue its work examing how (or not) the two formats may be used by systems which hope to interoperate. TR 29166 - dedicated to this topic - continues to take shape ahead of its projected finishing date in 2011.
  • WG 6 is the newly-created WG dedicated to the JTC 1 side of maintenance of ISO/IEC 26300:2006 (aka ODF v1.0). As a newly-created group there will no doubt be a certain amount of adminstrivia to be got through but there are more substantial issues looming too: defect reports to be advanced and the longer-term project of amending ISO/IEC 26300 to bring it into alignment with ODF 1.1 – there is general agreement that it makes sense to reduce marketplace confusion by reducing the confusing number of standard (and non-standard) “ODF” variants out there, and aligning versions between standards organisations.

Stay tuned (and follow hashtag #sc34 for real-time updates) …

SC 34 Meetings, Seattle - Day 1

At the invitation of ANSI, SC 34 is in sunny Bellevue for five jam-packed days of Standards meetings (Sunday-Thursday). This is a full and busy event, with around 60 delegates registered from 14 countries (Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Korea, Norway, South Africa, UK, and the USA) and 4 liaison organisations (Ecma, OASIS, W3C and the XML Guild).

Maybe by the end of it a number of momentous questions will have been answered, including:

  • Whether the world needs a standardised way to associate XML documents with schemas
  • Whether OOXML Transitional should be evolved
  • How ISO/IEC 26300 shall be maintained within SC 34
  • How standard schemas should be licensed to users
  • How MIME types should best be used for identifying document formats

Stay tuned ...


ODF Forensics

The other day I had a phone call from Michiel Leenaars of the NLnet Foundation, who is busy gearing up for this week's ODF plugfest in the Hague. Michiel had seen my blog post on ODF validation using pipelines, and was interested in whether I could come up with something quick and dirty for providing forensic information about pairs of ODF documents, so they could be assessed before and after they are used by a tool. This could help users check if anything has been incorrectly added or taken away during a round-trip. Here's what I came up with …

Reaching for XProc

Yes again, I am going to use an XProc pipeline to do the processing. The basic plan of attack is:

  1. take two documents
  2. generate a “fingerprint” for each of them
  3. compare the fingerprints
  4. display the result in a meaningful, human-readable form

Fingerprinting XML

For a basic comparison between document I chose simply to compare the elements used, and the number of them. This obviously leaves out quite a bit which might also be compared (attributes, text) etc – but is a useful smoke test about whether major structures have been added or lost during a round-trip.

So the overall pipeline will look like this:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<pipeline name="get-opc-rels" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/xproc"
xmlns:xo="http://xmlopen.org/odf-fingerprint"
xmlns:mf="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:manifest:1.0"
xmlns:cx="http://xmlcalabash.com/ns/extensions">
<import href="extensions.xpl"/>
<!-- the URLs of the ODF documents to be processed -->
<option name="package-a" required="true"/>
<option name="package-b" required="true"/>
<!-- get the first fingerprint ... -->
<xo:make-fingerprint name="finger-a">
<with-option name="package-url" select="$package-a"/>
</xo:make-fingerprint>
<!-- ... and the second ... -->
<xo:make-fingerprint name="finger-b">
<with-option name="package-url" select="$package-b"/>
</xo:make-fingerprint>
<!-- combine them into a single document for input into an XSLT -->
<wrap-sequence wrapper="fingerprint-pair">
<input port="source">
<pipe step="finger-a" port="result"/>
<pipe step="finger-b" port="result"/>
</input>
</wrap-sequence>
<!-- style into an HTML report of differences -->
<xslt name="transform-to-html">
<input port="stylesheet">
<document href="style-diffs.xsl"/>
</input>
</xslt>
</pipeline>

A number of things are of note:

  • The ODF packages are interrogated using the JAR URI mechanism I described here
  • We’re using a custom step <xo:make-fingerprint>, which takes as its input the URL of an ODF document (“package-url”), and which emits a “fingerprint” as an XML document. Obviously this step is not built into any XProc processor, so we’ll need to write it ourselves
  • We using XProc’s wrap-sequence step to combine the two “fingerprint” documents into a single document
  • We’ll be relying on an XSLT transform to turn this combined document into a nice report, which will be the end result of the pipeline.

Writing the fingerprinting pipeline

To define our custom pipeline <xo:make-fingerprint> we simply author a new pipeline, and give it the type “xo:make-fingerprint”. This can then be invoked as a step. Here’s what this sub-pipeline looks like:

<pipeline type="xo:make-fingerprint">
<!-- the URL of the ODF file to fingerprint -->
<option name="package-url" required="true"/>
<!-- load its manifest -->
<load>
<with-option name="href" select="concat('jar:',$package-url,'!/META-INF/manifest.xml')"/>
</load>
<!-- visit each entry in the manifest which refs an XML resource -->
<viewport name="handle"
match="mf:file-entry[@mf:media-type='text/xml'
and not(starts-with(@mf:full-path,'META-INF'))]">
<cx:message message="Loading item ..."/>
<!-- load the entry -->
<load name="load-item">
<with-option name="href" select="concat('jar:',$package-url,'!/',/*/@mf:full-path)"/>
</load>
<!-- accumulate everything in a <wrapper> document -->
<wrap-sequence wrapper="wrapper">
<input port="source">
<pipe step="load-item" port="result"/>
</input>
</wrap-sequence>
</viewport>
<!-- transform the accumulated mass into a fingerprint -->
<xslt name="transform-to-fingerprint">
<input port="stylesheet">
<document href="make-fingerprint.xsl"/>
</input>
</xslt>
<!-- label it with the package URL, as an attribute on the root element-->
<add-attribute match="/*" attribute-name="package-url">
<with-option name="attribute-value" select="$package-url"/>
</add-attribute>
</pipeline>

Things to notice here:

  • We iterate through the ODF manifest looking for XML documents
  • All of the XML in the entire package is retrieved and combined into a single mega-document wrapped in an element named<wrapper>
  • We’re relying on an XSLT transform, “make-fingerprint.xsl” to do the heavy lifting and turn our mega-document into meaningful (and smaller) “fingerprint” document
  • We add the URL of the ODF document to the fingerprint using XProc’s nifty add-attribute step

The Heavy Lifting: XSLT

The XSLT to boil a document down into a fingerprint can be seen here. What it produces is a summary of the elements used in each of the namespaces the document mentions. This extract gives a flavour of the kind of result it produces:

<namespace name="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:manifest:1.0">
<element name="file-entry" count="1"/>
</namespace>
<namespace name="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:meta:1.0">
<element name="generator" count="1"/>
</namespace>
<namespace name="urn:oasis:names:tc:opendocument:xmlns:office:1.0">
<element name="automatic-styles" count="1"/> 
<element name="body" count="1"/>
<element name="document-content" count="1"/> 
<element name="document-meta" count="1"/>
<element name="document-styles" count="1"/>
<element name="font-face-decls" count="2"/>
<element name="meta" count="1"/>
<element name="spreadsheet" count="1"/>
<element name="styles" count="1"/>
</namespace>

Returning now to our main pipeline, we can see it makes two calls to (or should that be “sucks on”) the sub-pipeline to generate two fingerprints. These are then wrapped with a wrap-sequence step, and we have all we need to generate the final report. Again, an XSLT transform is used to do a comparison operation and the result is emitted as an HTML document intended for human consumption. An example of what this looks like (comparing the OpenOffice and Google Docs versions of Maya’s wedding planner) can be found here.

Putting it to use

The results of this process need to be interpreted on a case-by-case basis. Just because two applications represent notionally the same document with different XML is not necessarily a fault (though I’d like to know why Maya’s Wedding Planner has 2,000 spreadsheet cells according to Google Docs, and only 51 according to OO.o).

The most useful application of this pipeline is to check for untoward data loss when a document is processed by an application – and I understand this is a particular concern of the Dutch government. With this in mind it is possible to take this pipeline further still, checking attribute differences and even textual differences. Though there comes a point when diff'ing XML that it is best to use a specialist tool such as the excellent DeltaXML (I have no association with this product, except knowing it is well-respected through its use among clients). Many an unsuspecting programmer has come to grief under-estimating the complexities of comparing XML documents.

Online ODF Validation

Michiel also asked whether it would be possible to make the ODF validation pipeline I blogged about previously available as an online service. Coincidentally this was something I was working on anyway, though using Java rather than XML pipelines. The result is now available here. Enjoy …