What's up OpenDoc?

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, Sept 1, 1995 by Chris Bristow

Integrated software programs like VivaPress, UniQorn and Wright Design combine illustration, image-manipulation and pagination functions in one application. The drawback to these all-in-one products is that specialized user needs are often subjugated to a lowest-common-denominator solution.

A more practical option may be the linked-module approach, epitomized by two competing technologies: OLE from Microsoft of Redmond, Washington, and OpenDoc from Component Integration Laboratories of Sunnyvale, California, both of which offer users seamless access to functions from other applications. Microsoft's OLE (object linking and embedding), by virtue of its first-to-market status, is the default leader; OpenDoc from CI Labs--a nonprofit coalition formed by Apple, IBM and Novell, but now also comprising Lotus and Adobe--is not slated for release until the end of 1995.

OLE, as will OpenDoc, allows different applications to work together within a master application called a container. Applications operating within the container are called parts. For example, an illustration created in Adobe Illustrator and later placed in Adobe PageMaker becomes the part, and can be edited within the container application (PageMaker) with most of the tools native to Illustrator.

The benefits are obvious. Users will be able to work more holistically, seeing the document change in context, not isolation. Perhaps the greatest advantage is that the user doesn't have to learn a new application.

Why do we need OpenDoc if OLE is already available? Ideally, the competition will drive both organizations to develop more innovative solutions. Moreover, companies like Apple, IBM and Novell don't want to leave it up to Microsoft to rule the roost. Naturally, OLE will ad value to Microsoft products first. To its credit, Microsoft polled other software manufacturers for OLE recommendations, but the final product is strictly under development by Microsoft, which does not distribute the code.

By comparison, OpenDoc is an open standard and is vendor-neutral, although CI Labs' sponsoring companies are currently doing the development. The code is available to anybody who pays the licensing fee. According to sources who have worked with OLE and the early OpenDoc developer kits, OpenDoc is the superior technology.

OpenDoc supports OLE compatibility and functionality through its architecture, freeing the user from any concern about which system to support. Adobe is committed to supporting OpenDoc on the Macintosh platform, but its Windows applications will support OLE. Currently both PageMaker and Persuasion for Windows support OLE, and an Adobe spokesman says that more extensive support will come after Microsoft ships its long-awaited Windows 95.

On the other hand, Adobe arch-rival Quark (which is not part of the consortium) is not so bullish about the technology. According to Quark chairman Tim Gill, "OpenDoc is still in its early stages and is not currently adequate. We suspect future versions will hold more promise."

Once OpenDoc and OLE appear in operating system upgrades, software publishers will need to make individual desktop applications OpenDoc- or OLE-compatible. Users will then need to upgrade.

Both technologies promise to bring better efficiency to desktop pagination and production environments. We can only hope that they take full advantage of that ability to leverage the strengths of different applications into a cohesive whole.