On Tue, 22 Mar 2005, Jonathon Blake wrote: [snip]
Depending upon how one counts, Lars missed between five and 200 versions of word.
I'm sure there are major differences in versions of RTF and document templates as well but I only focused on the suite of .doc formats.
I think one quickly reaches a point of diminishing returns when dealing with legacy formats, especially ones that are notoriously complex and undocumented. Weren't some of the remedies from the US DOJ vs MS cases supposed to result in documentation relevant to Arkady's question?
<off_on_a tangent>
I'm just glad there has been a move towards open document formats using XML. In particular, I'm quite excited about international formats like OpenDocument.
HTTP + HTML 2.0 changed the world, literally. They changed the way we work, the way we do business and the way we teach and do research. Why? Because anyone could transfer files (HTTP) and anyone could read the files (HTML) because both the format and the transfer protocol were Free, open and well documented.
One of the biggest drawbacks to word processing (and presentation graphics and spreadsheets) has been the menagerie of weird and proprietary formats. it will be interesting to see what comes of OpenDocument.
One possible change is that less time will be wasted on craptastic content managment systems. Access and control is already handled quite well by the file system (e.g. OpenAFS or Netware). Versioning handled by the file format or by it's XML components + subversion/cvs/etc. Metadata can be extracted directly from the document.
</off_on_a tangent>
-Lars
Lars Nooden ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Software patents kill innovation and harm all Net-based business.
Keep them out of the EU by writing your MEP, keep the market open.--------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
