[ILUG] Star Office

[Braun Brelin]

I'm not sure that's entirely correct.  The reason that the MS file formats
aren't transparent is that they encrypt the data.  They also dump their
runtime data structures into the .doc/xls/etc. file.  If the file is XML,
even though it's damn hard to understand, some smart person (or some
person with too much time on his/her hands) should be able to reverse
engineer things so that a schema or dtd can be published...

Right?

Braun

> On Thu, Jun 02, 2005 at 04:59:57PM +0100, CP Hennessy wrote:
>> Is it vaporware or just a stalling tactic ? ( or am I too cynical ? )
>
> it's neither.
>
> apparently they put the contents in some kind of blob that's just as
> hard to read as the old formats.  just because something is in "xml
> format" doesn't mean it will be magically readable.
>
> heck, up until now word documents were in a "file."  linux has all the
> tools you need to manipulate a file - open, close, write, read, trucate,
> seek, etc.  but that didn't make it easier to parse.
>
> kevin
>
> --
> kevin lyda ~ dems for torture: salazar(co/10) landrieu(la/08) pryor(ar/08)
> kevin at ie.suberic.net ~ nelson(fl/06) nelson(ne/06) lieberman(ct/06) 2/2/04
>   Those who refuse to raise their voices against something as clearly evil
>   as torture are enablers, if not collaborators.  --Bob Herbert, 2/11/04
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> Irish Linux Users' Group
> http://www.linux.ie/mailman/listinfo/ilug/
>