Tech Center Current

OOXML, Microsoft’s new document format which I have written about here and here, appears to have failed to achieve the number of votes necessary for ISO standard fast-track approval. This means that additional review will be required before determining whether the OOXML specification should qualify as an ISO international standard.

Microsoft is attempting to get the International Standards Organization to fast-track the approval of its Office Open XML (OOXML) document format which it developed to compete with the already-established OpenDocument Format (ODF) ISO standard. The Linux Foundation has recently made an official statement urging ISO members to vote “no” on fast-track approval, citing numerous implementation problems and allegations that Microsoft is attempting to use its wealth and business connections to hijack the standardization process.

Web applications have been all the buzz lately. Traditional desktop applications for e-mail, calendars, and basic word processing have begun losing favor to the online versions you can use in a web browser. Google has so far lead the pack in web application development, and they have recently released a tool which will help take web applications to the next level.

Microsoft has begun sending out e-mails urging people to oppose an upcoming California state bill that would promote open interoperability with digital documents. The bill, named “California A.B. 1668 : Open Document Format, Open Source“, would require all state agencies to standardize on XML-based open document standards so that they may be accessible to a wider range of applications and operating systems. The bill also establishes a “procurement preference” for the OpenDocument format (ODF). Microsoft objects to this stated preference and asserts that Microsoft’s own Office Open XML format would be a better candidate.

The second annual CSS Naked Day is coming April 5. This is the day that many sites will intentionally remove their webpage’s stylesheets in an effort to draw attention to something called “semantic markup”.

It seems like every web development tool is trying to generate XHTML these days. Web design teachers tell their students that HTML is “out” and XHTML is “in”. But is XHTML really the best thing to use? You may be surprised to learn that there isn’t a single major web browser vendor who thinks it is a good idea to use XHTML on a public website, and a growing number of web standards experts agree.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the fundamental computer language used to make webpages. It organizes and defines all of the elements of the document structure — such as headings, paragraphs, lists, tables, and links — to give computer-readable context to everything on the page.

Feed-based website syndication has become popular in recent years, but there is still a lot of people who haven’t learned about it and the benefits it brings.

Website syndication is a way to read about all of the recent news articles, blog posts, and website updates that interest you all in one place. In a single view, you can read headlines and summaries of articles on all of your favorite news sites and keep up-to-date without having to browse through all of those sites one-by-one every day. It streamlines your reading experience.

The Firefox web browser has just added APNG support to its development versions, meaning it will appear in a future release. APNG is an animated version of the popular PNG image format, solving one of PNG’s main shortcomings to the GIF format. APNG was designed to replace MNG, a different animated PNG format that never took off because its design was seen to be unnecessarily complex. The APNG specification hasn’t yet been finalized, but is expected to be once the PNG group approves a minor change.

SGML, the Standard Generalized Markup Language, is perhaps the most commonly used document language in existence. It is a metalanguage, meaning it is used to define other sub-languages. Two of the most well-known languages defined by SGML are HTML and XML.