November 2022
Open Standards
===============

I am trying to create a markup language at the moment. I want to write my
own code to generate a PDF file so I need to learn about how a PDF file is
structured. (After some difficulty) I found some Adobe specification by
following a Wikipedia citation that sent me to the Way Back Machine. Later, I
needed to learn about the true type font format so I went looking for another
specification. I found: some apple website [1] and an open type ISO standard [2]
(Open Type is an extension of True Type).

Lets start with the first, WHY do you publish your "Reference Manual" in the
form of a terrible website that downloads 2MB of garbage to my browser!? (and
that's just the contents page). Fine, if you want to track me then go ahead BUT
DO YOU REALLY NEED 300KB of JAVA SCRIPT TO DO IT! Just give me a PDF. Its a
reference manual - I might want to print if off.

But even worse than the apple reference manual is the ISO standard. It wants
me to pay (the equivalent of at the current exchange rate) £175 TO READ THE
STANDARD! ITS LITERALLY CALLED THE "OPEN FONT FORMAT". "OPEN"! And it looks
like if I buy it they will send a paper copy! There is no option just to
purchase a digital copy. This is just an excuse to charge more. How do you
expect anyone to write your software if they don't even know how the font file
works!

PDF, True Type, theses are not obscure file formats, so why is it so difficult
to find out how they work!

If you invent a file type, internet protocol or anything like that, make a
detailed specification that describes exactly how it works. Then distribute
this specification freely as a PDF (or a text file).

[1] some apple website
[2] an open type ISO standard