Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Microsoft Opening Outlook's PST Format

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the still-a-long-way-to-go dept.

protosage writes to tell us that Microsoft Interoperability is working towards opening up Outlook's .pst format under their Open Specification Promise. This should "allow anyone to implement the .pst file format on any platform and in any tool, without concerns about patents, and without the need to contact Microsoft in any way." "In order to facilitate interoperability and enable customers and vendors to access the data in .pst files on a variety of platforms, we will be releasing documentation for the .pst file format. This will allow developers to read, create, and interoperate with the data in .pst files in server and client scenarios using the programming language and platform of their choice. The technical documentation will detail how the data is stored, along with guidance for accessing that data from other software applications. It also will highlight the structure of the .pst file, provide details like how to navigate the folder hierarchy, and explain how to access the individual data objects and properties."

13 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. Oh no... by Mr.+Roadkill · · Score: 3, Funny

    Another sign of the Apocalypse - and it's a doozy. I always figured hell would freeze over before Microsoft opened up something like the .pst specs.

    1. Re:Oh no... by davester666 · · Score: 3, Funny

      In other news, Microsoft disables the ability for all of it's software to import and/or export PST files...

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    2. Re:Oh no... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      They're switching to OpenPST files (.pstx)

    3. Re:Oh no... by tsm_sf · · Score: 2, Funny

      Well to be fair you do need to have templates like 'balloon party' ready to go at a moments notice.

      --
      Literalism isn't a form of humor, it's you being irritating.
    4. Re:Oh no... by oatworm · · Score: 3, Funny

      Oh God... a 20 GB Unicode XML file! The horror! The horror!

    5. Re:Oh no... by Abreu · · Score: 4, Funny

      (6) It's a trap!

      --
      No sig for the moment.
    6. Re:Oh no... by davester666 · · Score: 4, Funny

      With only a single binary 'blob' element...

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
    7. Re:Oh no... by R2.0 · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm thinking more "The Ring" for software - thousands of software developers open the specifications file and all die horrible deaths within a week.

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
    8. Re:Oh no... by dbIII · · Score: 4, Funny

      Don't worry. It will truncate itself to 2GB and throw the rest away.
      Outlook not so good :(

  2. Re:Never even heard of it by RichardJenkins · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's like saying a blimp is an overly complicated way to cross the street.

  3. Embrace... by mcbutterbuns · · Score: 2, Funny

    Embrace
    Extend
    Extin... oh wait

  4. Re:I Don't Have a .PST by CoolGopher · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have an .ost file on my laptop you insensitive MS clods.

    In Swedish, a .ost file would imply that you have a .cheese file. Maybe it's a really cheesy format?

  5. Re:Never even heard of it by bemymonkey · · Score: 2, Funny

    It isn't, but what's surprising is how EASY it is to hit 10GB with a PST file - you'd think that that the incredible slowness in Outlook was caused by some sort of mega compression that reduces the file size to a tenth of what it was, but nooooo, I guess it's just a feature - gotta have time to drink some coffee and have a donut while switching between IMAP folders...