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Microsoft Partially Opens Proprietary XML Format

Posted by Zonk on from the peer-into-the-hat dept.

eschasi writes "Groklaw has an article up reporting that Microsoft is going to open up their XML representation of the DOC format in response to Massachusetts' demand for open formats. According to Groklaw there are some interesting caveats involved in the move. From the license: 'We are acknowledging that end users who merely open and read government documents that are saved as Office XML files within software programs will not violate the license'. While opening up the format even partially is a good idea, it's still a far cry from folks being able to write programs that create DOC-compatible files."

9 of 369 comments (clear)

  1. Proprietary XML? by sugapablo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Proprietary XML? Leave it to Microsoft to completely miss the whole damn point.

    --
    Sugapablo
    1. Re:Proprietary XML? by 0x461FAB0BD7D2 · · Score: 5, Funny

      They got the wrong definition. Redmond thought it meant "eXclusive Markup Language".

      Small typos like that get passed around in memos and next thing you know, you have patents for numerous things.

  2. Re:What Open by mcslappy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Clippy!

    now if i could only find that old copy of microsoft bob...

  3. Re:Off-Topic but curious by MyLongNickName · · Score: 3, Funny

    Simple. He simply uses Windows Calculator, and translates from binary 10001100001111110101011000010111101011111010010 to hex. Simple when you think about it.

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
  4. Toilets by SunPin · · Score: 4, Funny
    Is there even anything as ubiquitous as Word that we can compare to?


    Toilets. I believe toilets are as ubiquitous as Microsoft Word.

    --
    Laws are for people with no friends.
    1. Re:Toilets by Ohreally_factor · · Score: 5, Funny

      And at $40 per seat on average, toilets are much cheaper than Word.

      --
      It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
  5. Re:Not enough - write Mass. Govt.! by mmkkbb · · Score: 4, Funny

    using proper English grammer and spelling.

    How about, you handle the grammar and I handle the, Spelling. "OK"

    --
    -mkb
  6. Toilets: Total cost of ownership by SunPin · · Score: 2, Funny
    And at $40 per seat on average, toilets are much cheaper than Word.


    I agree with your assessment of toilet seats being cheaper than Microsoft seat licenses but shouldn't we wait until Microsoft releases a study on the total cost of ownership between toilets and Microsoft Office?

    --
    Laws are for people with no friends.
  7. Re:Hey thanks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    No, the purpose of XML is to get rid of languages like C and shell scripts by making otherwise simple configuration files cumbersome and difficult to parse without a full blown OOP based parser.

    It's also to force people to migrate from text files and commandlines to full blown GUIs by turning simple stuff like:

    #
    #minute hour mday month wday who command
    #
    #*/5 * * * * root /usr/libexec/atrun
    #
    # Run daily/weekly/monthly jobs.
    15 3 * * * root periodic daily
    30 4 * * 6 root periodic weekly
    30 5 1 * * root periodic monthly
    to
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//SCO, Inc.//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.sco.com/DTDs/cronxml-1.0.dtd">
    <cront ab version=1.0>
    <job minute=15
    hour=3
    user=root>periodic daily</job>
    <job minute=30
    hour=4
    weekday=6
    user=root>periodic weekly</job>
    <job minute=30
    hour=5
    monthday=1
    user=root>periodic monthly</job>
    </crontab>
    (That's me trying to format it nicely, btw.)