[Bf-committers] Microsoft dev support

[Domino Marama]

> ----------------- quote -----------------
> 
> The ISO standard Office Open XML is an  
> example of the direction we are moving towards.

Perhaps not a good example to use for those who have been following the
Office Open XML path through ISO.

http://www.robweir.com/blog/2008/05/release-ooxml-final-dis-text-now.html

How can a standard be approved before any of the people voting for it
saw the final form? Answer: by politics not technical reasons forcing
the issue.

> A good user experience of Blender on Windows is good for your  
> project/community and good for Microsoft.  What we are trying to  
> understand is what file formats, which are not open or not fully open,  
> are impeding the optimal experience with your community. If this is an  
> important issue to your users then it also accrues to the experience in  
> Windows. I would like to know what feedback you might have received  
> regarding the files your users most often import and those they might  
> be having a sub-optimal experience with.  Please also include in that  
> list any Microsoft files that you might have trouble with.

Personally I don't see why specific attention should be given to
proprietary Microsoft file formats. If they continue to avoid truly open
standards and their own file formats provide a sub-optimal experience
for Windows users, then it is not the open source community that has a
problem imho.

I don't see Microsoft making it easy for Mac, Sun, Linux etc users to
use their "file formats, which are not open or not fully open". Any
multi platform application which has support for Windows specific file
formats is going to end up with a fragmented community as data then
becomes platform specific even if the application isn't.

Do we want to help Microsoft lock more users data to their platform, or
do we want to encourage Microsoft to truly move towards open standards?

I guess that short answer is that any file format that doesn't have a
cross platform GPL or LGPL licensed implementation can't be considered
optimal for Blender users ;)