Chad Smith wrote:
Microsoft Office 2003 has an XML format, (and has for 3 years). It's a
different format than the one they are planning to use in the next version
of MSO, but it is XML.
It's not the default though. And that format is dead. It won't be
supported in future versions. It wasn't really more than an experiment.
Is obviously what? I don't see the rest of that sentence. Did it get cut
off somehow?
Oops. I began writing something, then started deletting, and forgot to
finish composing that sentence.
The MS Office format is largely derivative of OpenDocument. I probably
shouldn't say "obviously" because that's only obvious to someone
familiar with the format.
If you were going to say "obviously a copycat of OpenOffice.org" I'd find
that ironic when you say in the same email...
No reason we can't edit that list a little to make it fit OOo. We can
It's not always wrong to be a copycat. The fact that MS Office's format
is a copycat of OpenDocument is not wrong. Using compressed XML files is
a good design decision and you shouldn't do something else just to be
different (the NIH syndrome). The MS Office format would be even better
if it copied more from OpenDocument. It should be a JAR archive (like
ODF) and it should reuse existing standards (like ODF).
In fact... I wish MS Office would copy *everything* from ODF :)
I think learning from your competition is an excellent way to grow. I mean,
look at the success MS has had copying Apple.
/daniel can't believe he agreed with Chad on something
Cheers,
Daniel.
--
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/\/_/ http://opendocumentfellowship.org
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\/_/ I am not over-weight, I am under-tall.
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