Microsoft Open-Sources Its OOXML SDK

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Microsoft Open-Sources Its OOXML SDK

While Microsoft's Open XML (OOXML) SDK has long been publicly available, today they have finally decided to open-source this software development kit...

http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTcyOTg

[afeder]

That pig is mutating wings

Hasn't this basically been the holy grail of open document format efforts for the past 15 years? Or what is the catch?

[Luke_Wolf]

Hasn't this basically been the holy grail of open document format efforts for the past 15 years? Or what is the catch?

Well no.... the holy grail of the ODF efforts is for ODF to be used everywhere, by everybody, for everyone else though this is a Really Good Thing (tm) as it means a standardized reference implementation of OOXML, the only problem is nobody has an office suite written in C#

[pali]

This is really funny: High-performance and C#

[afeder]

Well no.... the holy grail of the ODF efforts is for ODF to be used everywhere, by everybody, for everyone else though this is a Really Good Thing (tm) as it means a standardized reference implementation of OOXML, the only problem is nobody has an office suite written in C#

I wasn't referring to capital ODF, but the more general movement advocating open standards for document formats. I remember Microsoft's unwillingness to properly document and specificy OOXML as being a major sticking point in the document format wars in the EU, for example. I hope all this is part of a trend since Ballmer was kicked out. Satya Nadella increasingly appears to have a quite different focus from the Borg-like Microsoft of olden times.

[GreatEmerald]

So only useful as a validator and perhaps reference... Sigh. I'm still hopeful that perhaps one day LibreOffice Impress will be able to open pptx files with the font not being tiny.

[BSDude]

I wasn't referring to capital ODF, but the more general movement advocating open standards for document formats. I remember Microsoft's unwillingness to properly document and specificy OOXML as being a major sticking point in the document format wars in the EU, for example. I hope all this is part of a trend since Ballmer was kicked out. Satya Nadella increasingly appears to have a quite different focus from the Borg-like Microsoft of olden times.

You really think that Satya once in office has done everything by his own accord? Lol, he can't raise a finger without the permission of the board and the nod of Gates. Balmer's departure was a sign that Microsoft's policies are changing but in no way has it influenced who is running the show.

[mark45]

I wasn't referring to capital ODF, but the more general movement advocating open standards for document formats. I remember Microsoft's unwillingness to properly document and specificy OOXML as being a major sticking point in the document format wars in the EU, for example. I hope all this is part of a trend since Ballmer was kicked out. Satya Nadella increasingly appears to have a quite different focus from the Borg-like Microsoft of olden times.

OOXML itself is a hell, if ODF takes a little over a 1000 pages of documentation, OOXML is 5-10 thousand pages long. No one in his right mind would bother to implement such a huge pile of prescriptions.
And last I heard OOXML was designed in such a way to allow to create incompatible documents, iirc adding a possibility to embed ActiveX or some other random stuff that would only work on selective OSes, like ms windows. ODF on the other side, only allows (Java) applets, though nowadays nobody bothers using/creating those.

[afeder]

You really think that Satya once in office has done everything by his own accord? Lol, he can't raise a finger without the permission of the board and the nod of Gates. Balmer's departure was a sign that Microsoft's policies are changing but in no way has it influenced who is running the show.

Seems like the kind of automated babble would let out if they don't really know what they are talking about. The fact of the matter is that Ballmer performed poorly in new markets like mobile and web, and everyone at Microsoft wanted to see a new direction.

OOXML itself is a hell, if ODF takes a little over a 1000 pages of documentation, OOXML is 5-10 thousand pages long. No one in his mind would bother to implement such a huge pile of prescriptions.

If that is the case, I guess Google are not in their right mind given that they have just announced native OOXML support in Google Docs. Regardless of how poor the format is, it is too widespread for real businesses like Google to ignore.

[r1348]

If that is the case, I guess Google are not in their right mind given that they have just announced native OOXML support in Google Docs. Regardless of how poor the format is, it is too widespread for real businesses like Google to ignore.

Native =/= complete