Tom Austin <taustin> wrote:
> http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2810967760.html

  I haven't been following this whole OOXML thing very closely, but as far
as I know the problem with Microsoft's OOXML is that regardless of being
"open" it's practially unimplementable as a whole by third-party software
because it's not as "open" as it claims to be. This is because it contains
things like "this is rendered like Word 95 renders it", without any more
instructions nor specifications which would explain how "Word 95 renders it".
Only Microsoft itself knows exactly the algorithm inside Word 95 which
renders that item, and MS is not going to make it open. Third-party software
could only emulate this behavior by external visual examination of Word 95
and guessing how it does it.
  Thus this "open" format defines many closed algorithms which are not
specified nor explained.

  Anyways, and to my point finally, what I don't really understand is why
Microsoft is doing this. If their intention is to create a document format
which only they can implement fully, why make it open at all? Why not keep
it completely closed and proprietary?

  Or is this some kind of PR stunt? "This is open, this is standardized,
this is not proprietary, this is thus good and you should start storing
all your official documents in this format. Don't fall for those third-party
open formats made by amateurs. True professionals only use formats created
by true professionals." Yet it's not as open as they claim to be. MS is
still in control because third-parties cannot fully implement the format.

  As for the article you linked, I really don't understand why so many
companies are voting pro this standard. Why would it be of their interest
to give MS yet another weapon against other companies? Aren't they simply
hurting themselves in this process? Strenghtening their dependency on MS?

  Perhaps it's some kind of battered-wife-syndrome, or stockholm-syndrome.
"My mighty big husband hits me, but I deserve it, and he knows what's good
for me. I am the guilty party here. He commands, I obey, because I deserve
to be punished."

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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