Why are the Microsoft Office file formats so complicated? (2008)

Re:Why are the Microsoft Office file formats so complicated?... by frik on Sunday September 11, 2016 @01:41AM (#12472145)

Much nicer? Not really. It literally a transpilation of the binary format. The XML files a very abnormal for everyone but who are familar how the original older doc/xls/ppt fileformat works. E.g. Look at how the Bold-tag is implemented, no sane developer would implement it that way. It's clearly done to mske it as straight forward port of the old format and make it as difficult as possible for every one else. The XML even contains binary blobs and all. A low-light. Every other modern Office format is nicer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_Office_Open_XML_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization_of_Office_Open...

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Re:Why are the Microsoft Office file formats so complicated?... by makomk on Monday September 12, 2016 @05:15AM (#12478206)

Worse, it's designed in a way that works completely differently from every other XML office format to allow Microsoft to patent it. Doing document markup the normal way in XML has too much prior art to be patentable (though that didn't stop Microsoft from trying), but they managed to get a patent on their oddball way of doing things.

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