Is this not just a granularity thing? For example, every country has its own standards. Japan has JIS and if you intend to export any goods to the country, you might have to comply with it. Would you just say that it is proprietary and ignore? If Microsoft is big enough so that it can stand on its own software economic entity - i.e. selling and buying software components among their own development groups - they need to set up their own standards, and I would respect it as standards. It is simply they are not recognized as ISO standards. ----- Original Message ----- From: Jacob Sparre Andersen <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2000 9:08 AM Subject: Re: Standards > Richard: > > If you call proprietary "standards" standards, then anything > is a standard. It simply devaluates the word into > nothingness. > > Jacob (somewhat annoyed) > -- > "simply because no one had discovered a cure for the universe as a > whole - or rather the only one that did exist had been abolished" >