WebODF: JavaScript Open Document Format Editor Deemed Stable 91
oever (233119) writes with news that WebODF (an Open Document Format editor written entirely using Javascript and natively rendering the XML document using CSS) 0.5.0 has been released, and the developers are declaring this release stable enough for every day use. TheMukt chides Google for not supporting the OpenDocument Format well and claims that the newly released WebODF 0.5.0 in combination with ownCloud is the answer to this deficiency.
A WebODF developer blog highlights all the goodies in the first WebODF release where the text editor is considered stable and made available as an easy to use component. These include extensive benchmarking, unit testing, and advanced HTML5 techniques to give the editor a native feel.
There's also touch screen support, and better support for real-time collaborative editing. A demo shows off a few of the features.
Re:Fonts? (Score:3, Informative)
It can use fonts embedded in the file and fonts provided via css. Fonts provided via css can be stored on the server or, when WebODF is used in a desktop or mobile application, on the local machine. There is not really anything for font license issuers to freak out about. PDF can embed fonts too as can OOXML. Providing fonts via css is common on the web these days and of course one should check the license when doing so.
Re:As long as you don't use page breaks (Score:1, Informative)
Adding page breaks is on the to do list. Here is technical preview [webodf.org] of pagination. Displaying properly is part of that work. Help, code or finances, are welcome to make this work land sooner.
Re:As long as you don't use page breaks (Score:3, Informative)
I actually would not consider this ready for every day use. It does not even play nicely with what I have at home as the following are broken.
1: It can't handle multiple columns.
2: No real support for index work.
3: Can't create tables or modify number of columns/rows.
4: No header/footer support.
5: No footnote support.
6: Embedded images tend to overlap text.
7: The equation stuff is not supported.
That said this is still bad ass and I look forward to seeing how it progresses.