On Tue, 1 Jan 2002 09:12:25 -0500 Ed Tharp <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> studiouisly spake these words to ponder:
> On Tuesday 01 January 2002 01:38, you wrote: > > On 31 Dec 2001 20:05:55 -0500, Michael Leone <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > wrote:> >I think Civileme's point was that if/when the UCITA law > > passes in> >Washington, USA, then Microsoft (headquartered in > > Washington) will be> >able to make a minor change to their > > proprietary .doc/.xls/whatever> >file formats, and it will be > > illegal for Sun or anyone else to> >reverse-engineer that file > > format to create a new filter for their> >competing office suite. > > > > > > Sun licenses the file formats from MS, don't they? They didn't > > > reverse-engineer them, I thought. > > > > Nope, they are reverse-engineered. That's why it has taken so long > > for the filters to reach their present level of quality (which is > > very good). Calling it "reverse engineered" is a little of a > > dangerous reach, (in my HUMBLE opinion), my guess is a lot of the > > info is from APIs released by M$, to allow third parties to be able > > to write macros and other programs that will work with M$ > > applications, the rest would be "obvious" to someone studying, say, > > word processor programing. I don't say this lightly, or with any reservation or apology at all. I think it's past time to just tell MS to take a fly leap on a rolling donut and move away from them in mass. For some it may be a bit difficult, but not impossible. If we don't we've only got ourselves to blame for the feeling of being held hostage by their proprietary systems. I for one am going to begin recommending, and loudly, to my superiors that its time we begin productivity migration away from MS. There just isn't any future in it. O, well, _their_ future, but certainly not one of choice and freedom. -- daRcmaTTeR --------------------------------------------------------------------- If at first you don't succeed do what your wife told you to do the first time! Registered Linux User 182496 Mandrake 8.1 --------------------------------------------------------------------- 7:05pm up 16 days, 10:54, 2 users, load average: 0.39, 0.54, 0.52
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