from Hacker News

When XML in Word Became Illegal

by ejz on 10/12/23, 2:49 PM with 51 comments

  • by jkaptur on 10/12/23, 3:31 PM

    "Microsoft.... built a custom XML tool into its word processor in 2007... this was a tool for power users, and was only used by a small percentage of its user base."

    I'm definitely confused by that statement and its link, because it implies the relevant tool is the disk format for every Office file, which has been described by an Excel program manager as "complicated enough to reduce a grown programmer to tears." https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2008/02/19/why-are-the-micros...

  • by yarone on 10/12/23, 5:22 PM

    A classic Joel on Software article about funny backwards compatibility built into Excel: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2006/06/16/my-first-billg-rev...

  • by FpUser on 10/12/23, 6:20 PM

    Looking at patent abstract [0] it basically patents separation of information and structure. That latter can be used to present information in various ways.

    My take is that it is fucking obvious and I just simply do not believe that the concept did not have prior art. It just show what a crooked business this whole modern patent system is.

    [0] - "A system and method for the separate manipulation of the architecture and content of a document, particularly for data representation and transformations. The system, for use by computer software developers, removes dependency on document encoding technology. A map of metacodes found in the document is produced and provided and stored separately from the document. The map indicates the location and addresses of metacodes in the document. The system allows of multiple views of the same content, the ability to work solely on structure and solely on content, storage efficiency of multiple versions and efficiency of operation."

  • by breakfastduck on 10/12/23, 4:55 PM

    I'm completely baffled as to how it's allowed to get a patent on stuff like this.

    Can I patent sending REST requests using JSON?

  • by pjungwir on 10/12/23, 4:38 PM

    If only someone had filed a patent that blocked Word from inserting curly quotes the wrong way, like ‘449.

  • by londons_explore on 10/12/23, 3:45 PM

    Anyone got a screenshot of this feature?

  • by ClearDayDev on 10/12/23, 7:15 PM

    I've not read the patent, but it's definitely inaccurate to say "Microsoft removed custom XML from Word." It's still possible to create custom XML parts programmatically, and I suspect it's quite commonly done. Also, I just checked, and Microsoft 365 has a custom XML mapping tool on the developer tab. So it would be interesting to know how Microsoft complied with the judgment and the subsequent history of the feature.

  • by jandrese on 10/12/23, 4:23 PM

    > Indeed, as you work on your Excel clone, you’ll discover all kinds of subtle details about date handling. When does Excel convert numbers to dates? How does the formatting work? Why is 1/31 interpreted as January 31 of this year, while 1/50 is interpreted as January 1st, 1950? All of these subtle bits of behavior cannot be fully documented without writing a document that has the same amount of information as the Excel source code.

    A quick note to anybody building an Excel clone: If you want to turn this insane date handling behavior of Excel into an optional feature that can be disabled everybody will appreciate it.

  • by willcipriano on 10/12/23, 4:46 PM

    The United States is #1 for protection of intellectual property in the world according to the property rights index: https://www.internationalpropertyrightsindex.org/

    Real property on the other hand? The US is ranked 14th.