Asking the right questions about Office 2010’s OOXML support

“This is the kind of dispute where you can go around in circles
with for days and not reach agreement. The problem is they are
arguing over words, not facts, and they do not agree perfectly on
the meaning of the words. Words like “support” and “complete” and
“conform” are used in different ways, with different meanings and
intents.

“Let’s try to escape the equivocation and instead try to
establish the underling facts. I can’t promise that this will
clarify the situation any. In fact I suspect we’ll end up even more
confused about what exactly Office 2010 actually supports. But
replacing a false certainty with an honest uncertainty is progress
of a kind. It gives us something we can build on.

“First, we need to acknowledge that OOXML entered ISO as one
standard, and was transformed, via the BRM and ISO ballot, formally
into 4 standards, ISO/IEC 29500 Parts 1, 2, 3 and 4. Within these
parts are are several different conformance targets and conformance
classes. In particular, these 4 standards encompass two different
and incompatible schemas for many of its features: “Strict” and
“Transitional”. What was submitted in the Fast Track is essentially
the “Transitional” schema. What was created by the BRM was the
“Strict” schema. This is where Microsoft made most of its
“concessions” in order to turn “No” votes into “Yes” votes. So
things like support for spreadsheet dates before the year 1900, the
elimination of VML graphics, etc., these are all in the “Strict”
schema. All the legacy “DoItLikeWord95” garbage was in
“Transitional” only.”

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