Nothing encumbered by fees or patents should be accepted as a "standard." Period.
No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)
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Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)
#12Or just write plaintext documents IETF style.
Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)
#13Earlier quoted context omitted.
What if they are not allowed to say no to lawyers?
Legal is a cost center, which means that they don't get to say no. Here is how that conversation goes: Lawyer: You must include my unenforceable EULA. Anyone-with-a-brain: lol, no. Your "contribution" to this project only serves to do the direct opposite of our stated intent... Actually, why are you involving yourself here - are you billing for this? Lawyer scampering noises recede into the distance
I think what a lot of people don't understand is that a lawyers job is to provide advise, not to make decisions.
Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)
#14No cost... except a ton of your personal info.
Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)
#15Or just write plaintext documents IETF style.
IETF RFCs haven’t been plain text for quite some years. RFC 2629 (June 1999) defined the first XML vocabulary, and RFC 7990 (December 2016) completed the process of declaring an XML format the canonical source, rather than plain text. To learn more, start at https://www.rfc-editor.org/rse/format-faq/.
Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)
#16> ISO 32000-2 was also, however, the first and only core PDF specification published exclusively — and only for purchase — by ISO, inhibiting its use and adoption over the last five years. Who would have thought that "international standards" that require payment don't work well? How many people are willing to spend a couple hundred CHFs to access the PDF specs? Also it seems insane to me that the PDF creator, Adobe,…
ISO C and ISO C++ also technically cost money.
Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)
#17> ISO 32000-2 was also, however, the first and only core PDF specification published exclusively — and only for purchase — by ISO, inhibiting its use and adoption over the last five years. Who would have thought that "international standards" that require payment don't work well? How many people are willing to spend a couple hundred CHFs to access the PDF specs? Also it seems insane to me that the PDF creator, Adobe,…
This works for ISO standards in many areas.
In many environments there are requirements to be standards-compliant. Buying the standard is a prove of compliance. (Turn it around: "you didn't even obtain the standard! How could your product be compliant?")
This is of course mostly relevant for engineering. Less so in IT, but even IT standards compliance is sometimes part of government contracts. At least for language compilers.
And yes, nobody will be able to verify the compliance, but commercial vendors document how well they comply to the standard and that limits the liability.
Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)
#18> ISO 32000-2 was also, however, the first and only core PDF specification published exclusively — and only for purchase — by ISO, inhibiting its use and adoption over the last five years. Who would have thought that "international standards" that require payment don't work well? How many people are willing to spend a couple hundred CHFs to access the PDF specs? Also it seems insane to me that the PDF creator, Adobe,…
ISO C and ISO C++ also technically cost money.
This is true, but that's not good either. Thankfully finding a final draft isn't hard for these, but we shouldn't have to do it in the first place.
Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)
#19Nothing encumbered by fees or patents should be accepted as a "standard." Period.
The problem is that work on standards costs a lot of money. Somehow we need to pay for that. The solution could be the state.
Re: No-cost access to the latest PDF standard: ISO 32000-2 (PDF 2.0)
#20Nothing encumbered by fees or patents should be accepted as a "standard." Period.
The problem is that work on standards costs a lot of money. Somehow we need to pay for that. The solution could be the state.
Like what? And if they do, is it really sustainable? Are these standard organisations really funded by the papers they sell?