[MPEG-OTSPEC] Proposed Adoption of the Online Standards Development Platform

[Ken Lunde]

Murata-san,

Another consideration is the extent to which the toolchain of ISO/CS can handle characters outside of basic Latin. I suspect that it cannot handle arbitrary characters in the ISO/IEC 10646 standard, and as of Unicode Version 16.0 that was released less than a week ago, there are now 154,998 characters. While I cannot speak about MS Word, mainly because I use the app only when necessary, PDF has an advantage in that it can embed the glyphs from the fonts that are referenced in the authoring app.

Regards...

-- Ken

> On Sep 14, 2024, at 22:29, MURATA via mpeg-otspec <mpeg-otspec at lists.aau.at> wrote:
> 
> The latest CD has 1000 pages.  Can the toolchain of ISO/CS handle 1000 pages?  We should ask them.  If it cannot, they might be willing to accept a Word document and a PDF.
> 
> Regards,
> Makoto 
> 
> 2024年9月15日(日) 11:56 MURATA <eb2mmrt at gmail.com>:
> Dear colleagues,
> I would like to propose that we transition from using Word to the Online Standards Development (OSD) platform provided by ISO and IEC.
> For more information, please visit:
> https://www.iso.org/OSD
> Several projects, such as the upcoming version of Schematron (ISO/IEC 19757-3), have successfully adopted the OSD platform and are finding it highly effective.
> While some may suggest that we continue using Word, generating PDF documents, and submitting them to the ISO Central Secretariat (ISO/CS), it is my understanding that ISO/CS is increasingly reluctant to accept PDF submissions.
> In exceptional cases, such as with ISO/IEC 29500-1 (a document nearly 4000 pages long), there may be valid reasons to persuade ISO/CS to accept PDFs. The sheer size of such documents can overwhelm their current toolchain (eXtyles and Typefi), which struggles with large files. However, unless we have a similarly compelling reason, ISO/CS is likely to refuse any PDF submissions and decline to publish standards.
> Another option is to submit Word files and request ISO/CS to generate PDFs. However, this approach has led to numerous issues, with project editors frequently encountering significant discrepancies between their expected layouts and the final PDFs generated by ISO/CS. Many editors within JTC1 have shared frustrating experiences due to these problems.
> ISO/CS does not directly convert Word documents into PDFs. Instead, they transform Word files into STS (XML) format, which discards much of the original formatting. They then generate PDFs from these STS documents. I’ve attached a diagram illustrating this process, which is based on discussions with an ISO/CS Editorial Program Manager.
> I understand any hesitation about this transition, but I have not heard of any serious complaints regarding the OSD platform.
> Regards,
> Makoto
> 
> 
> -- 
>  --
> 慶應義塾大学政策・メディア研究科特任教授
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