[LINK] Microsoft Wins Open-Format Designation

[Rick Welykochy]

Linkers have already dissected the folly of allowing the
MS "open" document format. One dreadfully salient point
is that embedded OLE objects are allowed by the MS proposal,
and yet no-one knows how those objects are laid out or
how what they mean. All that one sees in the XML is an
embedded blob of binary data. That is truly drastic.


stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:

> Reversing Loss, Microsoft Wins Open-Format Designation 
>  
> KEVIN J. O'BRIEN www.nytimes.com
> Published: April 2, 2008

[BIG SNIP]

> Microsoft’s push for speedy approval led to objections from many members 
> of the standards group. They felt pressure from the company, whose Office 
> application suite is the standard on more than 90 percent of computers and 
> archives worldwide, according to International Data in Framingham, Mass.

Hrmmm ...oh, that is great logic. Not.

So the fact that 90% of archives worldwide have made the demonstrably
incorrect decision to archive in a proprietary format makes it okay
to accept this "standard".

"Ship of fools" comes to mind.

Think about this. It is pretty well impossible to view a Microsoft
Word document created only 20 years ago.

And regarding those damn embedded OLE objects? No-one knows what
to do with them or how to display them.

There is lots written on the folly of the MS document format. Just
google for it.

cheers
rickw



-- 
________________________________________________________________
Rick Welykochy || Praxis Services || Internet Driving Instructor

The best way to accelerate a PC is 9.8 m/s2
      -- anon