cdf

Wolfram launches CDF, a new document format

Wolfram today rolled out its Computable Document Format, which is designed to turn documents into interactive applications.

The goal is to turn "lifeless documents" into ones that bring data to life, show the data behind assumptions and illustrate concepts. Conrad Wolfram, strategic director of Wolfram, said the CDF effort has now reached the point where the company can open it up to developers, publishers, and other interested parties.

Wolfram is still working out the business model behind CDF, but publishers have reportedly shown "great interest." For now, CDF is delivered via a free player that can bring infographics, journals, and math lessons to life. It's not a stretch to see how a magazine like Popular Science could publish in the CDF format.

The rub is that Wolfram needs adoption and there's already a dominant document format in Adobe's PDF. One big challenge would be figuring out the interplay between CDF and PDF. Would someone want to embed a CDF document into a PDF? Conrad Wolfram said that "the CDF format will be open" with the goal of becoming a public standard.

For now, Wolfram needs developers on board. CDF has reached the point where a developer with the know-how to author an XML document can bring publications to life. Indeed, the use cases for CDF revolve around journal articles, knowledge apps, textbooks, infographics, and presentations and reports.

This story originally appeared on ZDNet's Between the Lines.… Read more

Sharepoint and why ODF, CDF, and other file formats may not matter much

Glyn Moody has written a lengthy, probing piece on the bust-up of the Open Document Format and its weird morphing into Compound Document Format, with a twist of Da Vinci. At the heart of the change? Microsoft Sharepoint.

While most of the open-source world sleeps, Microsoft is gearing up for a truly innovative take on its next-generation operating system. Sharepoint, not Windows, is the future of Microsoft's intended dominance.

This line of thinking probably explains the widespread incomprehension that greeted the [Open Document] Foundation's decision to abandon ODF. Supporters of the latter believe that it is by far the best document format, one that provides numerous benefits to users, notably freedom from lock-in. Hiser couldn't agree more: "We don't want OOXML to ever see the light of day, and certainly we feel deeply that it needs to be rejected by ISO finally and conclusively." But he adds:… Read more

In OpenDocument Foundation discussion, standards blogger gets skinny on CDF

Andrew Updegrove, an attorney who writes the Standards Blog, talked to representatives from the World Wide Web Consortium this week and found that the Compound Document Format (CDF) is not suitable for Office-style applications.

During the W3C's Technical Plenary Meeting earlier this week, Updegrove spoke to Chris Lilley, the go-to guy on CDF at the W3C. Lilley said the format was not designed for applications like spreadsheets and word processors and that CDF is meant for interoperability between other Web technologies.

The reason Updegrove inquired goes back to a news story, reported first here, and then discussed much on … Read more

Former OpenDocument advocates bolt for W3C standard

When it comes to document standards, it seems that one is never quite good enough.

Adding a twist to a high-stakes conflict over document formats, some advocates for OpenDocument, or ODF, are abandoning the standard in favor of the World Wide Web Consortium's Compound Document Formats standard.

The reason? Technical limitations in sharing ODF files with Microsoft Office applications.

"We can't meet our market requirements with OpenDocument," said Gary Edwards who started the OpenDocument Foundation last year. "The truth is OpenDocument was never designed to meet market requirements."

Edwards and his colleagues started a … Read more