Subject: [idn] Powerpoint

From: "Adam M. Costello" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 22:33:54 +0000

It seems strange to me that the presentations of an IETF working group
charged with developing an open standard are available only in a
proprietary format (Powerpoint).

Am I the only one on this list who doesn't have Powerpoint?

Does Powerpoint allow presentations to be saved in an open format, like
PDF?  (Or PostScript, though I have yet to see correct PostScript come
out of any Microsoft application.  I heard that there's a printer driver
option that allows you to "optimize for portability", but apparently
very few people know about it.)

AMC

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From: Dave Crocker <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 16:54:07 -0600

>very few people know about it.)

PDF is not an open format.

Neither is GIF, which is what the presentation would have to use if the 
data were characterized as an HTML web page.

In reality, neither is Postscript.

At any rate there are free powerpoint viewers.

d/

----------
Dave Crocker   <mailto:[email-masked]>
Brandenburg InternetWorking   <http://www.brandenburg.com>
tel: +1.408.246.8253;   fax: +1.408.273.6464

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From: "J. William Semich" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 18:06:05 -0500

Actually, Powerpoint allows "save as" directly to html ... works for me
(see http://www.aptld.org/outreach/nu-bind/sld001.htm).

Bill Semich

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From: Marc Blanchet <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 18:26:10 -0500

I publish it in the format the authors provide it to me.

Marc.

ps1. btw, pdf is also a proprietary format, it just happens to have open 
source readers...
ps2. please don't start a war/flame/thread on file formats, this is not the 
right use of the bandwidth of the wg.

>very few people know about it.)

Marc Blanchet
Viagénie inc.
tel: 418-656-9254
http://www.viagenie.qc.ca

----------------------------------------------------------
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From: "Adam M. Costello" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 00:01:58 +0000

Marc Blanchet <[email-masked]> wrote:

> please don't start a war/flame/thread on file formats

My only intention was to see if someone with Powerpoint would volunteer
to convert the presentations to another format.  I thought pointing out
the irony of using a proprietary format might increase my chances a
little, but it may have the unintended consequence of starting a flame
war.  Sorry.  Let's all try to keep the thread constructive.

> At any rate there are free powerpoint viewers.

Do you know of any for unix/X?

> Neither is GIF, which is what the presentation would have to use if
> the data were characterized as an HTML web page.

Maybe "open" was the wrong word.  I meant a format for which a spec is
publicly available, and for which anyone may write and distribute a
decoder.  I think PDF, GIF, and PostScript all qualify.

(And by the way, PNG is widely supported these days, and is as open as
HTML.)

AMC

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From: Dave Crocker <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 16:01:06 -0800

>(see http://www.aptld.org/outreach/nu-bind/sld001.htm).

html is the framework for the powerpoint pages, yes, but the real data are 
in GIF, a proprietary specification.

d/

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From: Erik Nordmark <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 06:25:28 -0800 (PST)

> Do you know of any for unix/X?

FWIW staroffice can view powerpoint.

  Erik

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From: "Adam M. Costello" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2001 22:51:02 +0000

> FWIW staroffice can view powerpoint.

Thanks, it mostly works (although there is apparently some
font-substitution happening).

For anyone else interested, you can download a Linux version for
free from http://www.sun.com/products/staroffice/.  Various BSDs are
supposedly able to run the Linux version.

AMC