Software interoperability

[Jason White <jasonw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Gary raises an important point which T.V. Raman has emphasized previously:
what matters is not whether one uses the same tools as one's colleagues,
but whether there is a common data format that can be manipulated
comparably using the different software solutions. To give a brief
example, I use Emacspeak to prepare documents in LaTeX, which can then be
supplied in HTML (which most people can edit), or as PDF files for
printing, or, in the most primitive case, as ASCII text. There are command
line tools available which can readily convert proprietary formats such as
MS-Word and RTF into HTML. I am encouraged by the widespread move toward
XML and its associated standards. SQL is often used as a standard, and
common, data base format, of which relatively good, free implementations
are available (please note that I haven't used SQL personally, but I do
keep track of what free software is available). Thus I think there are
existing solutions in most areas, and fortunately the move toward open,
interoperable formats will make it easier for people to choose their own
preferred software tools with greater freedom.


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