Comments on: New Leopard Build Supports Office 2007 Formats - Office:mac coming 6-8 months later http://www.damnhandy.com/2006/12/10/new-leopard-build-supports-office-2007-formats-officemac-coming-6-8-months-later/ A blog about Java, REST, and other stuff. Sun, 12 Oct 2008 06:23:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Ryan http://www.damnhandy.com/2006/12/10/new-leopard-build-supports-office-2007-formats-officemac-coming-6-8-months-later/#comment-9122 Ryan Wed, 20 Dec 2006 16:48:32 +0000 http://www.damnhandy.com/?p=88#comment-9122 Yes, I did say: “And finally, this new format is now an EMCA standard, of which anyone who can read a spec could implement the format. And even though the spec only became a standard on 12/7/2006, the spec had been published well in advance.” And my point was that Apple has apparently implemented support for both OpenDocument and Office Open XML formats in the latest builds of Leopard. It doesn't matter if I have implemented a spec or not, nor weather or not ECMA-376 was rushed or not, Microsoft authored the spec. One would assume that they would have some deeper knowledge of the format than anyone else. Hell, Office 2007 seems to support it. My point is that it speaks volumes to Microsoft's commitment to Office:mac if they can't have access to the internal resources to get a file format converter out until late spring. Apple seems to have the resources to do this. It's mind boggling that MS cannot. Yes, I did say: “And finally, this new format is now an EMCA standard, of which anyone who can read a spec could implement the format. And even though the spec only became a standard on 12/7/2006, the spec had been published well in advance.”

And my point was that Apple has apparently implemented support for both OpenDocument and Office Open XML formats in the latest builds of Leopard. It doesn’t matter if I have implemented a spec or not, nor weather or not ECMA-376 was rushed or not, Microsoft authored the spec. One would assume that they would have some deeper knowledge of the format than anyone else. Hell, Office 2007 seems to support it.

My point is that it speaks volumes to Microsoft’s commitment to Office:mac if they can’t have access to the internal resources to get a file format converter out until late spring. Apple seems to have the resources to do this. It’s mind boggling that MS cannot.

]]> By: Kaj Kandler http://www.damnhandy.com/2006/12/10/new-leopard-build-supports-office-2007-formats-officemac-coming-6-8-months-later/#comment-9120 Kaj Kandler Wed, 20 Dec 2006 15:48:35 +0000 http://www.damnhandy.com/?p=88#comment-9120 You say "And finally, this new format is now an EMCA standard, of which anyone who can read a spec could implement the format. And even though the spec only became a standard on 12/7/2006, the spec had been published well in advance." Have you ever tried to build a software to a spec? May be you should read up on that spec for ECMA-376. It was rushed through the ECMA committee like bills in the US congress with no real time to read the thing. This spec also compares binary formats that are proprietary and so is lots of this format in general, especially the backward compatibility measures. Compare this to ODF, also known as ISO 26300, which builds on lots of other specs and therefore can be implemented using existing building blocks. It also uses established specs for example to set formulas instead of reinventing the wheel. If you think reading a spec and implementing it in a software that is in any way or shape competitive is easy, then you better try to do so. By the way the ODF converter add-ons for MS Office are open source projects, sign up and grind your teeth on reading two specs and implement a conversion between them. Show us how easy it is! You say “And finally, this new format is now an EMCA standard, of which anyone who can read a spec could implement the format. And even though the spec only became a standard on 12/7/2006, the spec had been published well in advance.”

Have you ever tried to build a software to a spec? May be you should read up on that spec for ECMA-376. It was rushed through the ECMA committee like bills in the US congress with no real time to read the thing. This spec also compares binary formats that are proprietary and so is lots of this format in general, especially the backward compatibility measures.

Compare this to ODF, also known as ISO 26300, which builds on lots of other specs and therefore can be implemented using existing building blocks. It also uses established specs for example to set formulas instead of reinventing the wheel.

If you think reading a spec and implementing it in a software that is in any way or shape competitive is easy, then you better try to do so. By the way the ODF converter add-ons for MS Office are open source projects, sign up and grind your teeth on reading two specs and implement a conversion between them. Show us how easy it is!

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