From baker@dad.cs.fsu.edu  Mon Jun  9 14:08:44 1997
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Date: Mon, 9 Jun 1997 08:07:18 -0400
From: Ted Baker <baker@dad.cs.fsu.edu>
Message-Id: <199706091207.IAA27138@dad.cs.fsu.edu>
To: ajosey@rdg.opengroup.org, rinehuls@access.digex.net
Subject: Re: (wg15tag 1654) (SC22WG15.1020) Record of Response for defect reports/interpretations for 9945-1, -2, 19519 and 13210
Cc: sc22wg15@dkuug.dk

| -> Aside to WG15 -ers - I know you've decided to distribute 
| your docs in Word format - but please also send out ASCII and/or
| PDF as an alternative - there are no Word viewers for many platforms,
| and I just want to read the docs not word process them!

I just returned from a WG15 meeting, where the same subject came up.
The preferred formats were, from most to least preferred:

1. "ASCII" (LATIN-1) text -- can be read directly by any mail reader
2. PostScript -- can be transmitted without encoding,
   read and printed using free "Ghostscript" S/W
   available for virtually all platforms
3. PDF -- can be read and printed using free viewer,
   available for most platforms (though fewer than Ghostscript).

Proprietary and non-portable formats, such as the various Word and
WordPerfect formats, were explicitly rejected.  The main reasons for
rejection were:
1. Incompatibility between DOS, Windows, and Macintosh versions of the
   software.
2. Extreme incompatibility between MS Office 97 versions and previous versions.
3. Loss of information using conversion tools between various versions of
   the MS software on the same operating system.
4. Difficulty reading documents, for people on UNIX workstations.
   (Typically requires copying messages to floppy disk, decoding them,
   carrying disk to a MS OS machine, possibly converting the document,
   and then printing it.) This tends to discourage response, and at least delays it.

--Ted Baker
(Liaisons between WG15 and WG9)