<div dir="ltr"><div>Hi</div><div><br></div><div>SUMMARY: The TeX community is lagging behind lawyers in creation of archive ready documents, as shown in a recent high-profile High Court judgement.<br></div><div><br></div><div>Recently "A couple were divorced by mistake after a computer error at a family law firm. See <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68821406">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68821406</a></div><div><br></div><div>This is relevant to us because the judgement is available in three forms:</div><div><br></div><div>HTML: <a href="https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/fam/2024/733">https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/fam/2024/733</a></div><div>PDF: <a href="https://assets.caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/fam/2024/733/ewhc_fam_2024_733.pdf">https://assets.caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/fam/2024/733/ewhc_fam_2024_733.pdf</a></div><div>XML: <a href="https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/fam/2024/733/data.xml">https://caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ewhc/fam/2024/733/data.xml</a></div><div><br></div><div>This shows that the legal profession is considerably ahead of the TeX community, in providing documents in multiple formats. Further the UK National Archives support the production as storage of such multiple format documents.</div><div><br></div><div>This is particularly important to us because Don Knuth intended (and succeeded) in making TeX archival. However, most open source TeX-based workflows do not support creation of high-quality HTML and XML output.</div><div><br></div><div>Oh, by the way, the PDF metadata for the judgement says that the creator is LibreOffice 7.2.<br></div><div><br></div><div>In case you're interested in the off-topic aspect of this post, here are some URLs:</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68821406">https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68821406</a><br><a href="https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/16/accidental_divorce_computer_error/">https://www.theregister.com/2024/04/16/accidental_divorce_computer_error/</a><br><a href="https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/firm-pledges-full-support-to-lawyer-over-online-divorce-mistake/5119365.article">https://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/firm-pledges-full-support-to-lawyer-over-online-divorce-mistake/5119365.article</a><br><a href="https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/04/16/ewhc_fam_2024_733.pdf">https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/04/16/ewhc_fam_2024_733.pdf</a><br><br>The law firm (on the Law Gazette) suggests the final divorce was due to a usability problem on the website, and so should be "set aside". I learnt about this incident from The Register. The judge (see last link for the judgement) gives no or little weight to that argument.<br><br>with kind regards<br><br>Jonathan </div></div>