[triton]

there cannot possibly be a better specification than freely available source code

That's even more horse shit and a poor excuse if there ever was one for not documenting something properly.

The source code by nature covers a subset of the standard as it can't cover every logical edge case and it isn't verified. At least the documentation is the verification source.

Not only that, I've delved into the LibreOffice source code and it's horrible, convoluted and a rats nest from hell.

[rbanffy]

I think you are not paying attention. In addition to the documentation you found confusing, ODF comes with a reference implementation. While sometimes the LibreOffice source code can be daunting, especially if you are not that a good coder, it's runnable and evidently usable. I'm not advocating not writing documentation (I take great pains not only to document my code but to also provide comprehensive tests for it).

I don't know what kind of code you do, but your lack of faith in the clarity of your code and your tests as a form of documentation is disturbing. I hope your clients can't identify you from your comments.