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Microsoft Releases Pre-2007 Binary File Format Specs

Posted by timothy on from the in-exchange-they-can-read-the-odf-spec dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has released the specifications for the binary file formats used by pre-2007 Microsoft Office applications. They're accurate this time! Honest! While the documents are enormous (Word alone requires 533 pages; Excel runs over 1000 plus another 850 pages for the Office 2007 binary format), they hopefully will be useful to developers trying to create or extract information from Microsoft Office files (which despite their flaws, have been the de facto standard in many fields for some time now)."

18 of 269 comments (clear)

  1. I think the real question by bragolach · · Score: 5, Funny

    is WHEN are they going to release the source code to the Flight Sim in Excel 98?

    1. Re:I think the real question by MiniMike · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's actually hidden in the released documents. You have to go to a specific page of the Excel portion, and by starting at a specific line and skipping the correct numbers of lines between read lines, the spec will be revealed. The exact details are left as an exercise for the morbidly curious.

  2. The catch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    The released specifications are in a pre-2007 MS Office binary file format.

    1. Re:The catch by MBGMorden · · Score: 2, Funny

      You laugh, but I remember seeing someone upload (to a BBS many years ago) a copy of PKZip in .zip format . . .

      --
      "People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
  3. Chicken and Egg by BobNET · · Score: 5, Funny

    The only problem? They released them in Word format...

    (Okay, not really -- someone must have realized that that would be silly.)

  4. Yay for Microsoft! by Tumbleweed · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wait ... what did I just say? ...

    I don't think I'm feeling well. I'm gonna go lie down now.

  5. Re:How freaking "open" of them... by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1, Funny

    You may benefit from a patent license if you are distributing implementations of these protocols commercially or if you use an implementation of any of the protocols covered by Microsoft patents. For more information, contact the Microsoft Open Protocols Team.

    Ah, well, at least now I know that "Open" in this context means "Open Your Wallet".

    --

    The enemies of Democracy are
  6. Re:unusually bloated ? by sdpuppy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Perhaps they have a few of:


    "This Page Intentionally Left Blank"
    :-)

  7. Re:interesting... by Kingrames · · Score: 1, Funny

    Indeed. This is a strange new move by the borg.

    Shields up.
    Weapons online.

    Red Alert.
    All hands to battlestations.

    --
    If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
  8. Re:How freaking "open" of them... by smittyoneeach · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, but at least they offer the appearance of wanting to feel like changing...

    --
    Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
  9. are we clear ? by rs232 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Crystal clear to me .. :)

    --
    davecb5620@gmail.com
  10. It's a Trap! by stox · · Score: 4, Funny

    20 years ago, at what was the world's largest software project, we used to joke that if we wanted to ruin our competition, we would send them a copy of our specs. It looks to me that Microsoft got the same idea.

    --
    "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
  11. Re:interesting... by Spy+der+Mann · · Score: 4, Funny

    Indeed. This is a strange new move by the borg.

    This reminds me the episode of House M.D. when he started acting nice one day and everyone began freaking out.

    You should chill out and think of this being more of a partial victory than an enemy's plan.

  12. Re:How freaking "open" of them... by Fallus+Shempus · · Score: 4, Funny

    Or you could just tab delimit it and stick a .xls on the end...

  13. Re:How freaking "open" of them... by hostyle · · Score: 3, Funny

    And at least you offered the appearance of what feels like an insightful post...

    --
    Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
  14. What makes you think so? by Bearpaw · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just because Lucy has always jerked the football away doesn't mean Charlie Brown won't get to kick it this time.

  15. Re:How freaking "open" of them... by Koiu+Lpoi · · Score: 2, Funny

    Even with the links, I had no idea what you said.

  16. Re:So that's only about 2400 pages! by chrispugh · · Score: 2, Funny

    Because "pages" are a great way to measure a specs size..

    Exactly. How many Libraries of Congress is this?