Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Just Says No to .Doc Replacement Panel

Posted by timothy on from the they-could-take-another-fork-in-the-road dept.

Schlemphfer writes "OASIS is a nonprofit consortium backed by top technology companies, and the purpose of this organization is to set open standards for desktop and business software. They've just announced a working group that will create an XML-based document format standard for openoffice.org. And even though Microsoft is a member of Oasis, they aren't going to be taking part in this group. It's a logical move on Bill's part, considering that standardized XML docs are sure to weaken the hold that Microsoft's proprietary .doc format has on business software."

4 of 483 comments (clear)

  1. Re:RTF and ascii by sisukapalli1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    RTF and Text are not good at all... Especially when you want send an email saying "The meeting is at 10:30am. See you there", we need Office XP doc file, with a couple of signature attachments -- better yet, copy a PPT slide from standard company template and highlight the 10:30 with big, bright colors.

    Call this post a flamebait, but most people that use "Word" do that stuff.

    S

  2. Re:RTF and ascii by Oliver+Wendell+Jones · · Score: 5, Funny

    This is no worse than my company sending out a new e-mail policy as an attached Word document.

    It had no fancy formatting, and was essentially a list of do's and don'ts for corporate e-mail usage. One of the items on the list was "don't include unnecessary attachments - if it can be said in plain text, don't make it a Word document"...

    --
    A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
  3. XML sucks! Lisp S-expr rules! by MeanGene · · Score: 5, Funny
    XML structure is just wasteful and hard to read. Why would anyone prefer to write

    <italic>
    <bold>
    <fontsize=12>
    xyz!
    </fontsize>
    </bold>
    </italic>
    instead of succinct, clean and more flexible
    (italic (bold (fontsize 12 (text "xyz!))))
    Oh yeah, the answer is - Lisp has been around since 1950's and we can't get grants or buzz using it...
  4. Benefits others besides Microsoft by Sloppy · · Score: 5, Funny
    Here's another thing for conspiracy nuts to think about: Anything that anyone (including Microsoft) does that can keep people from switching away from MS Word's format, is good for...

    ...the Anti-Virus companies. The probability that a new word processor format would be designed to include enough expressiveness for trojans, is pretty darn low.

    So maybe McAfee or Symantec or someone like that, slipped a few bucks into Microsoft's pocket to ask 'em to oppose the new format. ;-)

    (I love coming up with this crazy shit.)

    --
    As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.