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Stephane Rodriguez Dismantles Open XML

Posted by kdawson on from the some-kind-of-joke dept.

Elektroschock writes "Stephane Rodriguez, a reengineering specialist who became popular for his article on MS Office 2007 binary data, now comprehensively debunks Microsoft's new Open XML format. With small case studies he demonstrates the impossible challenges third-party developers will face. His conclusion: it is 'defective by design.' Next week members of the International Standard Organization are likely to approve the format as a second official ISO standard for office documents, even though most nations have submitted comments. Rodriguez claims he is 'not affiliated to any pro-MS or anti-MS party/org[anization]/ass[ociation].'"

1 of 188 comments (clear)

  1. Personally.. by nrgy · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Personally I like this link (pdf) in the ariticle.

    From: Bill Gates
    Sent: Saturday, December 5 1998
    To: Bob Muglia, Jon DeVann, Steven Sinofsky
    Subject : Office rendering

    One thing we have got to change in our strategy - allowing Office documents to be rendered very well by other peoples browsers is one of the most destructive things we could do to the company.

    We have to stop putting any effort into this and make sure that Office documents very well depends on PROPRIETARY IE capabilities.

    Anything else is suicide for our platform. This is a case where Office has to avoid doing something to destroy Windows.

    I would be glad to explain at a greater length.

    Likewise this love of DAV in Office/Exchange is a huge problem. I would also like to make sure people understand this as well.

    I'm not saying this as some linux nut job but its things like that which just drive me nuts. Regardless of which ever os I prefer that kind of thinking just boils my blood.

    How can any committee deciding on open standards seriously take a company which has been proven time and time again to play by its own rules and whenever it offers something labeled OPEN its about as open as the doors to Fort Knock are to the average person.