Re: RTF - proprietary or open?

On Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:46:37 -0700
Alan Ianson <agianson@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 2007-25-06 at 10:18 -0400, Celejar wrote:
> > I'm using Abiword, which recommends using RTF for document exchange
> > with non-Abi users. I'm trying to understand whether RTF is an open
> > standard. Wikipedia [0] claims that it's proprietary. This article
> > [1] points out that it has the same status as PDF. I can't imagine
> > that Abi would recommend a non-open standard, and even prefer it to ODF
> > (OASIS / XML) [2]. What does it even mean for a file format to be
> > open? That the creator can't restrict its use? That the spec has been
> > published?
> >
> > [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Text_Format
> > [1] http://www.tkachenko.com/blog/archives/000657.html
> > [2] http://www.abisource.com/mailinglists/abiword-dev/2003/Apr/0167.html
> >
>
> I had a quick look at abiword a long time ago and quit using it for this
> very reason. I guess the rtf format is still readable by most word processors
> (I don't have good info, I don't use them) and that's the reasoning why abiword
> uses it. I could never get happy with it myself and that's why I don't
> use it. I couldn't get happy with koffice/kword for the same reasons
> although I believe kword supports ODF now and I hope this will continue
> to be the case with koffice and other word processing applications like
> abiword in the future.

Thanks. Abi seems to currently support ODF natively, btw.

Celejar

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