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Standards Expert — "Microsoft Fails the Standards Test"
levell writes "Alex Brown, Convenor of the Ballot Resolution Meeting on OOXML, has written a blog post saying that Microsoft is failing the standards test. Mr. Brown notes: 'In its pre-release form Office 2010 supports not the approved Strict variant of OOXML, but the very format the global community rejected in September 2007, and subsequently marked as not for use in new documents — the Transitional variant. Microsoft are behaving as if the JTC 1 standardisation process never happened, and using technologies (like VML) in a new product which even the text of the Standard itself describes as "deprecated" and "included... for legacy reasons only"...' He also says that defects are being fixed very slowly and that 'Looking at the text, I reckon it is more like 95% that remains to be done, as it is still lousy with defects.' It's an insightful look at what has happened with OOXML since ISO approved it from someone who was not opposed to its becoming a standard."
... because he was sure full on in favour of his masters work and blind to its faults when the ballot took place.
Why is this news? Microsoft doesn't follow any standards, and never has. It's part of their strategy. Since they're bigger than everyone else, everyone has to adhere to their (non) standards, which means everyone else is always playing catchup, and can never get ahead. This way implementation is never judged on speed or size, but instead judged on "how Microsoft-like" it is. Microsoft always wins that comparison.
Really? End of subject.
thanks to the average user, who does not care about these kinds of things.
That and more from my 2009 blog post
Every one of these has come to pass. If the scales are falling from Alex's eyes, then great. But the rest of us saw this coming a long time ago. In fact, Microsoft told us at the SC34 meeting in Seattle last year that the "Strict" conformance class would not be supported until Office 16. Alex knows that. So it is odd that he is pretending that this is something unexpected.
even if you were born 2500 years ago:
http://www.aesopfables.com/cgi/aesop1.cgi?4&TheScorpionandtheFrog
Welcome to the Panopticon. Used to be a prison, now it's your home.
The requirements need to be set by purchasing and strictly followed.
Buy only Software that meets OOXML-Strict or OpenDocument. If no supplier is able to meet OOXML-Strict then no purchases will be made.
Is this person for real?
Yes, what really is the difference between 'office app space' and 'internet browser space'? Let's not forget Microsoft's swift rush to Internet standard conformance! They were like frolicing collies running over the meadows, busy herding eager to please!
Belief is the currency of delusion.
The article says
Microsoft employs many eminent and standards-aware people of unimpeachable record – they also obviously “get it”
Actually, Microsoft employs many people who were previously of unimpeachable record. When these obviously intelligent and "eminent" persons get in bed with Microsoft and then don't cry foul at the first, second, third, or fourth time that Microsoft willfully and intentionally manipulates standards bodies, then how can we possibly consider their record anything but stained?
I know several people who work for Microsoft, and while I am happy that these friends still have work, especially in this time of massive layoffs, I wish that they had an opportunity to apply their skills at a company not so unbelievably hostile to standards groups.
coding is life
I totally agree with you - binary file formats are like totally insecure for sure... I mean one need only look to web browsers which parse those "binary" html and xml formats and how many hundreds of critical security bugs they have had over the years. Its the low level parsing of document structure where all the bugs are - switching to XML will make your documents secure and I have a caribbean vacation getaway I would like to sell you. Only $99..whats your fax number?
It makes you wonder about all those promises that Microsoft has made to GNOME, Mono, and Linux to not sue. I don't buy any olive branch that Microsoft bares. Microsoft is evil, they will do everything to make it look like they want standards and interoperability, and then do everything in their power to make their product the only product. Seriously, anybody who believes any offer of friendship from MS is seriously gullible.
And implying Jeremy had no experience of Microsoft to base his opinions on. It's class all the way down.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Microsoft CAN'T go along with standards. If they did, then when they release a new version and change the file format to yet another proprietary variant it wouldn't force everyone to upgrade when their early-adopting friends (who probably got it free from MS) send them a document or spreadsheet in the new format and they can't open it, modify it, and send it back without buying an upgrade. Ka-CHING! We got another one Jocko!
He may come out less credible out of this - but so does Microsoft.
And this just confirms what we have known a long time - Microsoft don't give a crap about any opinion or being popular. They are big enough to just roll over everyone. Not very different from dictators around the world.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
I have to disagree with Alex. Not with his summary of what happened, but with his conclusions. The OOXML standards project hasn't failed, and isn't heading for failure. It's been wildly successful. Remember that Microsoft's goal with it wasn't to produce a standard document format. It was to get an ISO standard passed with OOXML in the name so Microsoft could provide the correct tick-list item to sell to governments, while still keeping MS Office using a format that only Microsoft could reliably read and write. In fact, a document format that conformed strictly to a published standard that was completely and correctly specified was for MS an explicit non-goal, something to be kept from happening.
And if Alex expected anything else from Microsoft, I have to think he's deluded. There's nothing in Microsoft's history to suggest they'd do otherwise if they have any alternative open to them.
And this is a surprise because of .. WHY ??? ..
This is Microsoft after all
"Suppose you were an idiot...and suppose you were a member of Congress...but I repeat myself." Mark Twain
Please, show me the standard a PERL CGI script adheres to
Gee, I dunno, maybe this one?
Office produces 100% compliant ODF files that Open Office can't properly handle.
Microsoft? Credible? On what planet? They didn't even write the DOS that was their reason for being. IBM helped them out with W32, and suffered from it when they killed OS/2. Dave Cutler took the features they needed from VMS to create NT - and today he's filing the serial numbers off of EC2 to complete their cloud offerring. They have been a sham this whole time and no change from that paradigm is anticipated.
Help stamp out iliturcy.