[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: Linux article -- oh, forgot my favorite! (MS Office for Linux)

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Sat, 2004-07-03 at 12:48, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
> Some of my notes on the article ...

Oh, forgot my favorite ...

  "You might even find yourself someday using Microsoft Office for
   Linux."

MS Office for Linux _already_exists_ internally and document
compatibiltiy _sucks_ as bad with MS Office for Windows as it does for
MS Office for Mac.

Why?

You can send documents to Mac, and they are readible.  But going back is
a PITA.

Again, why?

Data alignment.  You have to worry about it on non-x86 architectures. 
That's why the Mac version reads character (byte-by-byte).

MS Office for Windows uses record reads/writes.  Because of alignment
issues, this not only causes issues for documents coming from non-MS
Office versions or non-Windows MS Office versions, but _between_
versions.

Word 6.0A, B and C was an excellent study in this (ask me sometime).

That's why you can often read MS Office documents in OpenOffice,
StarOffice, etc..., but not send them back to your MS Office buddies.

This is not me talking, but former MS Office for Mac developers.


-- 
     Linux Enthusiasts call me anti-Linux.
   Windows Enthusisats call me anti-Microsoft.
 They both must be correct because I have over a
decade of experience with both in mission critical
environments, resulting in a bigotry dedicated to
 mitigating risk and focusing on technologies ...
           not products or vendors
--------------------------------------------------
Bryan J. Smith, E.I.            b.j.smith at ieee.org