Norm Jacobs <Norm.Jacobs at Sun.COM> wrote:
> Paul Cunningham wrote:
>
>> > I haven't had the time to look into it, but I have been told that XPS
>> > includes some MS proprietary components. IF this is true, the open
>> > source community and printer manufacturers won't be able to fully
>> > support XPS without a license for the proprietary technologies.
>>
>> If that is the case then so much for it being "open" - oh I was
>> forgetting it's Microsoft! But they think it will be 'open', see blog
>> http://blogs.msdn.com/andy_simonds/archive/2005/10/17/482135.aspx from
>> late last year.
>>
> From the blog you mention:
>
>> Microsoft plans to freely license XPS technology to encourage its use
>> as general-purpose documents. Microsoft will grant a royalty-free
>> copyright license
>> <http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/xpscopyright.mspx> to copy,
>> display, and distribute the XML Paper Specification. Microsoft will
>> also grant a royalty-free patent license
>> <http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/xps/xpspatentlic.mspx> to read, write
>> and render XPS Documents. Execution of the licenses will be
>> straightforward and will not require the company to sign and return
>> the license agreement.
>
>
> So maybe what I heard was true, it may use proprietary tecnology, but it
> looks like they are making an effort to provide 'open' access to the
> proprietary technologies for XPS.
That was my interpretation of it to. Lets just hope they, Microsoft,
keep the specification fully 'open' and don't add their own new private
extensions which they don't put in the spec or tell anyone about. If
they don't they will blow this quote, from the above blog', away ....
"Our customers have heterogeneous environments ? Windows, Mac,
Unix, different types of business systems running on a variety
of platforms and the need to build document archival systems
and know they can manipulate the documents a hundred years
from now."
Does anyone know if ESP have got any plans to add XPS support to CUPS
(www.cups.org) or 'ESP Print Pro' (www.easysw.com/printpro/)?
Paul
