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- Microsoft Office - 2007-02-07T19:44:54Z
-
> It's one thing for a private party to own your software, but the files
> you create with it should be your own.
Agreed, and now with the DMCA in place it's questionable whether or not
one still has the legal rights to reverse engineer the proprietary
formats of one's own files.
It's not surprising that Massachusetts made the move that it did (or
that Texas is now considering something similar).
> One thing that has always irked me about PC software (and much Mac
> software too) is this model where only 1 program can process a certain
> type of file. I want different programs to be able to do different
> things with the same file, in traditional Unix fashion. That's why I
> like to make my data files text files instead of binary.
Macs have gotten better over the years in that regard. They've honestly
put in an effort to use reasonable XML (not just binary blobs encrypted
within XML outer layers). Furthermore, the word on the street is that
they'll be natively supporting the various OpenDocument formats with
their next release of OS / iWork. Plus, one of my favorite data sharing
models of all time was developed by Apple originally -- Newton soups.
Granted, it seems like they forgot how to apply them for a decade, but
some of the OS X software seems to be slowly starting to move along in
that direction again.
In fairness to Macs, WinTel boxes, and UNIX machines, though, it should
really be noted that file formats are as much in the hands of the app
developers as they are in the hands of the OS developers. Adobe
FrameMaker has just as much a proprietary native format under UNIX as it
does under the Mac or WinTel, even though UNIX -> Mac -> WinTel kind of
run the gamut in their respective ratios of open system formats to
closed ones. (Although it should be noted that FrameMaker's MIF format
is open.)
To express my own bias here, I currently use a UNIX desktop and a Mac
laptop. I did MS-Windows development though for a few years...
> (By the way, that also makes for smaller, more efficient programs,
> instead of bloatware that takes forever to load.)
True enough.
> XML is great. A human can read it and almost all programming languages
> these days have special XML libraries.
It is indeed a fine thing so long as people adhere to its spirit. I'm a
little worried because MS lately seems to be trying to use XML as a
buzzword but seem to be missing the point with their latest offerings.
> What do you think of the overhead of text formats such as XML?
It depends on how you mean. For file interchange, I've no problem with
it. For content negotiations, I have no problem with it (or even RDF
applications built on top of XML with even additional overhead).
For quick real-time message exchange, JSON is probably a better match,
and it also has either built-in support or library support in most
languages.
> (P.S. I use NeoOffice at home.)
I tend to use a mixture of things ranging from FrameMaker to Pages to
NeoOffice to AbiWord. NeoOffice keeps getting better with each release,
though, and I'd love to be able to eliminate my dependency on FrameMaker.
- Microsoft Office - 2007-02-07T19:40:31Z
-
> It's one thing for a private party to own your software, but the files
> you create with it should be your own.
Agreed, and now with the DMCA in place it's questionable whether or not
one still has the legal rights to reverse engineer the proprietary
formats of one's own files.
It's not surprising that Massachusetts made the move that it did (or
that Texas is now considering something similar).
> One thing that has always irked me about PC software (and much Mac
> software too) is this model where only 1 program can process a certain
> type of file. I want different programs to be able to do different
> things with the same file, in traditional Unix fashion. That's why I
> like to make my data files text files instead of binary.
Macs have gotten better over the years in that regard. They've honestly
put in an effort to use reasonable XML (not just binary blobs encrypted
within XML outer layers). Furthermore, the word on the street is that
they'll be natively supporting the various OpenDocument formats with
their next release of OS / iWork. Plus, one of my favorite data sharing
models of all time was developed by Apple originally -- Newton soups.
Granted, it seems like they forgot how to apply them for a decade, but
some of the OS X software seems to be slowly starting to move along in
that direction again.
In fairness to Macs, WinTel boxes, and UNIX machines, though, it should
really be noted that file formats are as much in the hands of the app
developers as they are in the hands of the OS developers. Adobe
FrameMaker has just as much a proprietary native format under UNIX as it
does under the Mac or WinTel, even though UNIX -> Mac -> WinTel kind of
run the gamut in their respective ratios of open system formats to
closed ones. (Although it should be noted that FrameMaker's MIF format
is open.)
To express my own bias here, I currently use a UNIX desktop and a Mac
laptop. I did MS-Windows development though for a few years...
> (By the way, that also makes for smaller, more efficient programs,
> instead of bloatware that takes forever to load.)
True enough.
> XML is great. A human can read it and almost all programming languages
> these days have special XML libraries.
It is indeed a fine thing so long as people adhere to its spirit. I'm a
little worried because MS lately seems to be trying to use XML as a
buzzword but seem to be missing the point with their latest offerings.
> What do you think of the overhead of text formats such as XML?
It depends on how you mean. For file interchange, I've no problem with
it. For content negotiations, I have no problem with it (or even RDF
applications built on top of XML with even additional overhead).
For quick real-time message exchange, JSON is probably a better match,
and it also has either built-in support or library support in most
languages.
> (P.S. I use NeoOffice at home.)
I tend to use a mixture of things ranging from FrameMaker to Pages to
NeoOffice to AbiWord. NeoOffice keeps getting better with each release,
though, and I'd love to be able to eliminate my dependency on FrameMaker.
- Microsoft Office - 2007-02-07T19:37:46Z
-
> It's one thing for a private party to own your software, but the files
> you create with it should be your own.
Agreed, and now with the DMCA in place it's questionable whether or not
one still has the legal rights to reverse engineer the proprietary
formats of one's own files.
It's not surprising that Massachusetts made the move that it did (or
that Texas is now considering something similar).
> One thing that has always irked me about PC software (and much Mac
> software too) is this model where only 1 program can process a certain
> type of file. I want different programs to be able to do different
> things with the same file, in traditional Unix fashion. That's why I
> like to make my data files text files instead of binary.
Macs have gotten better over the years in that regard. They've honestly
put in an effort to use reasonable XML (not just binary blobs encrypted
within XML outer layers). Furthermore, the word on the street is that
they'll be natively supporting the various OpenDocument formats with
their next release of OS / iWork. Plus, one of my favorite data sharing
models of all time was developed by Apple originally -- Newton soups.
Granted, it seems like they forgot how to apply them for a decade, but
some of the OS X software seems to be slowly starting to move along in
that direction again.
In fairness to Macs, WinTel boxes, and UNIX machines, though, it should
really be noted that file formats are as much in the hands of the app
developers as they are in the hands of the OS developers. Adobe
FrameMaker has just as much a proprietary native format under UNIX as it
does under the Mac or WinTel, even though UNIX -> Mac -> WinTel kind of
run the gamut in their respective ratios of open system formats to
closed ones. (Although it should be noted that FrameMaker's MIF format
is open.)
To express my own bias here, I currently use a UNIX desktop and a Mac
laptop. I did MS-Windows development though for a few years...
> (By the way, that also makes for smaller, more efficient programs,
> instead of bloatware that takes forever to load.)
True enough.
> XML is great. A human can read it and almost all programming languages
> these days have special XML libraries.
It is indeed a fine thing so long as people adhere to its spirit. I'm a
little worried because MS lately seems to be trying to use XML as a
buzzword but seem to be missing the point with their latest offerings.
> What do you think of the overhead of text formats such as XML?
It depends on how you mean. For file interchange, I've no problem with
it. For content negotiations, I have no problem with it (or even RDF
applications built on top of XML with even additional overhead).
For quick real-time message exchange, JSON is probably a better match,
and it also has either built-in support or library support in most
languages.
> (P.S. I use NeoOffice at home.)
I tend to use a mixture of things ranging from FrameMaker to Pages to
NeoOffice to AbiWord. NeoOffice keeps getting better with each release,
though, and I'd love to be able to eliminate my dependency on FrameMaker.
- Microsoft Office - 2006-12-31T12:38:02Z
-
It's one thing for a private party to own your software, but the files you
create with it should be your own.
One thing that has always irked me about PC software (and much Mac
software too) is this model where only 1 program can process a certain
type of file. I want different programs to be able to do different things
with the same file, in traditional Unix fashion. That's why I like to make
my data files text files instead of binary.
(By the way, that also makes for smaller, more efficient programs, instead
of bloatware that takes forever to load.)
XML is great. A human can read it and almost all programming languages
these days have special XML libraries.
What do you think of the overhead of text formats such as XML?
(P.S. I use NeoOffice at home.)
- Server Upgrade - 2006-03-28T12:11:27Z
-
We're switching on a new server right now... Things will be a little
erratic for a little while...
- Microsoft Office - 2005-09-01T22:29:24Z
-
Anyone have any thoughts on the dropping of MS Office support by the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts?
It was mentioned in the Saugus.net Dailies already, and you may want to
look there for a little more information:
http://www.saugus.net/Dailies/daily_2005-09-01_1653/
- Newsgroup Moderation - 2005-07-16T12:46:46Z
-
As has been previously mentioned elsewhere, we're doing some moderation
testing this weekend. Things will all be back to normal shortly.
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