[MPEG-OTSPEC] near-term OT spec work

[Levantovsky, Vladimir]

On Saturday, October 3, 2020 6:06 AM MURATA Makoto wrote:

We need courage to state principles. Otherwise,
nothing will change.

We also need to be honest, especially when it comes to getting something done.

Font shaping for developing countries appears to
require significant enhancements to fonts. Requests
from CSS also require a lot of work. I do not believe
that such enhancements can be done by private
companies, which have to care how much investment
is required and how much profit can be expected.

Let us be realistic about how the work is done and who does it. Standards organizations, be it W3C or ISO, don’t do the work in a vacuum, the specs (CSS, OFF, …) don’t come out of thin air. These organizations exist only because of [and for] their members – both public and private companies, who make significant contributions investing time, money, and resources to send their experts to work collaboratively to get things done. These investments are substantial, and participating member companies have to remain profitable to cover their expenses. They may not profit directly from standards work, but they do need to profit from it one way or another, or nothing gets done.

Therefore I do not think that we should agree to tie
our hands.

Who are “we” who shouldn’t agree to tie our hands? Who do you think will do this work (and implement the results!) if private companies walk away from it? Who has resources to get things done when “Font shaping for developing countries appears to require significant enhancements to fonts”?

Vlad

Regards,
Makoto

2020年10月3日(土) 17:55 Caleb Maclennan <caleb at alerque.com<mailto:caleb at alerque.com>>:
>
> On Sat, Oct 3, 2020 at 1:23 AM MURATA Makoto <eb2m-mrt at asahi-net.or.jp<mailto:eb2m-mrt at asahi-net.or.jp>> wrote:
> > I think that synchronization with OT should not be mentioned in
> > this AHG.
>
> Why not? It seems quite relevant to me. Even if I don't *like* the
> current process and the black-box stages it involves, the current
> defacto way the MOFF (MPEG Open Font Format) spec actually gets
> updated is through tracking changes to MSOT (Microsoft OpenType).
> They are still (rightfully) in a position to do whatever they want
> with their own spec for internal use and pragmatically speaking the
> most effective way we have to get things fixed in OFF is by appealing
> to M$ as a benevolant dictator that can actually change their own
> spec and pretty significant weight to get their changes rubber
> stamped into OFF (since keeping them in sync is kind of the deal).
>
> However bad this state of affairs is and however silly it is for M$
> to try to keep their cake and eat it too — as long as this is the
> state of things I'd much rather hear about work they are doing
> internally on their MSOT spec through this AHG than have the topic
> be made off limits. The inevitable result of that would be for the
> entire end-to-end process to happen in closed groups that many in
> the industry don't have access to even audit!
>
> In short it seems very relevant to me for the sync process from
> MSOT→OFF to be mentioned in this AHG list. Even if some of the
> steps are still off limits to plebians, the fact that some of the
> steps are closed doesn't seem like a good reason to close off all
> of the process.
>
> Why do you think the OT→OFF synchronization that is both currently
> and historically a significant part of what the OFF is should be
> off limits for disccussion in this AHG?
>
> Caleb
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--
Regards,
Makoto
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