4 ms·
Hm. I’m obviously not a lawyer and also not a software engineer in an enterprisey setting. But some ideas might be: - all internal data storage formats have to
by claudius 12y ago
Hm. I’m obviously not a lawyer and also not a software engineer in an enterprisey setting. But some ideas might be:
- all internal data storage formats have to be completely specified
- an open data format (RTF, PDF, txt?) has to be supported for import/export
- the source code has to be licensed suitably, e.g. GPL
- open/platform-independent toolkits (say Qt, GTK) have to be used
As I said, I’m not a lawyer and not a software engineer, so these are likely entirely unsuitable. And while they not ensure maintainable software, I think they certainly would not be detrimental.
- dredmorbius 12y agoI'd make damned sure that a format in the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it be specified. PDFs can be modified, but you really don't want to do that. Far better to get source in LaTeX, DocBook, RTF, Markdown, or some similar format. Better: insist that the tool not only be capable of outputting the chosen format, but that it do so by default, as a matter of course, and without any error, warning, or other dissuasive dialog (e.g., "some formatting changes may be lost") in the process. While it's not the only company to do so, Microsoft's gaming of file formats for lock-in advantage is legendary (and yet another reason I avoid the company's products where at all possible).