The issue back then was everyone had their own proprietary file format,
since there was no common one that could be used by any company, except
"txt" and other formats that did not keep the file's formatting properly.
No company would allow you to use their proprietary formats.
The there was a movement to create a common file format that everyone
could use. In the end, that set of document formats developed into the
Open Document Formats.
Now any company can use this non-proprietaryset of document formats to
create, read, or edit documents created by other companies' packages.
Yes, it was total chaos. I remember having to manually edit some document
files in a "text editor" to remove the formatting codes so it could be read
by a different word processor, since the facility did not have that
package. That worked for some formats, but not others. Now there is one
standard ODF, although Microsoft would say it is their formats.
Yes MSO formats have dominated the field of what formats are used, but MS
did not share its proprietary formats with the competitors. OOo and LO had
to reverse-engineer its ability to read MSO formats. MS did try to get its
"XML based formats" [docx and such] made into an International standard,
but would not give up control of its development, which is a requirement to
make it fully an open standard - no one company can control an open
standard, since it would have its development "controlled" by an
international committee of companies and groups of people/users who want to
make it better. MS wanted to publish a version of their "standard" in a
way that there would be still proprietary parts to the open standard that
required MS products to use them properly. Also they wanted to decide what
would be done to that "standard" without any other company/group having a
say. This is a sore subject for some of us, with all of MS's legal [and
illegal] behind the scenes politics [and bribery] to make their "open"
formats be THE international standard after the vote decided on ODF as the
[one an only] ISO standard for office document formats.
Chaos was the past. Greed is what is going on now. The "true" use of a
free open format by most [hopefully all] of the office packages should be
our future. LO uses ODF as their default. As changes are proposed and
developed, LO should modify its filters/programming to use those
modifications of ODF properly in their created/edited documents. LO/TDF is
not in control of that format, but can offer up proposals to make it work
better in the "real world" of office use. MS wants every user to use their
"open" formats, but you must use their office package to use it fully and
properly. MS does not want to hand over the ability of its competitors to
read/write/edit files created with their packages, so that users no longer
need to use its office package. That was the way of most of the word
processors and office packages in the past. Most of them, excluding MS,
have decided that it would be better to go with the international movement
and be able to properly read/write/edit a single fully open set of document
formats, instead of forcing users to buy their package to read/write/edit
files that were created with their packages. It is better to use an ISO
set of document formats.
Now these office packages will be used if and only if they are determined
to be the best/easiest package for the users to get their word done.
LO and other FOSS packages include the idea of "best" to include "free" in
its definition.
For many of us, with limited budgets and other issues, choose free over
paid packages.
"Why pay for software when you can legally get software that does the same
thing for free?" FOSS package creators do not have the "must make as much
profit" attitude as companies like MS does. That attitude is what drove
the file format "chaos" of the early days of desktop computing. Now that
that industry has grown out if its childhood years, we need to survive its
teenage years. The concept of "true openness" of the Internet hopefully
will make its adulthood a much better place, with less chaos and with a
more "grown up" attitude like what people should teach their children to
make them a better adult.
On 01/28/2012 02:43 AM, soumalya ray wrote:
i was just wondering-there are so many file formats in this world.if this
is the case now,what was the picture 5-10 years back!!its a total chaos.
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