Microsoft's DocX format and why it is a bag of rotten dicks

[hygraed]

I work in the IT department at a community college. We get a fair amount of "returning students" who haven't touched a computer in fifteen years. The very first computer class is "Computer Concepts," which covers the basics of Windows and Office. This wasn't too bad until last year, when all of the curricula for the Computer Concepts classes switched over to Vista and Office 2007.

WHAT THE FUCK, MICROSOFT? DocX? Really? Why? Oh wait, it's so you can have a shot at ISO/IEC standardization! Never pass up a chance to extend your monopoly, what what!

Never mind the fact that DocX is incompatible with all previous versions of Word without installing the Office 2007 compatibility pack! What novice computer user is going to figure that out when the only thing they are told upon attempting to open a DocX file in an older version of Word is that the DOCUMENT IS INCOMPATIBLE WELL ISN'T THAT FINE AND FUCKING DANDY. How fucking difficult would it have been to include another god damned sentence in the error message to the effect of "Installing the Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility Pack can fix this." And why would you make DocX the default file format when the user hits Save? It's not inconceivable that a novice user would expect a Word document they saved at school to be able to be opened on their machine at home which might be running Office 2003. What really burns my biscuits is the fact that this could pretty much be remedied by adding an extra sentence or two that, I don't know, TELLS THE USER WHAT ALL THIS SHIT MEANS.

[AArdvark]

I have noticed that Microsoft has been getting a 'my toys in the sandbox' mentality. Docx is just another example of this. I have been using Word 2007 for a little while now and have seen nothing 'improved' about any of the features. I could use Word 2000 and still do everything I need.


THE
BIGGER BETTER SAME
AARDVARK

[Jack Straw]

And and but one day I went to the sandbox
And it was so sad
And I cried and I cried because
Someone took a doody in my sandbox
Someone took a doody in my sandbox

And that was so bad
And that was so disgusting
And how could they do that
And and that was so bad

And and and I didn't see it
And and I sat right down in it
And it felt squishy and I got up
And I cried and I cried and I cried

And why didn't they clean up after themselves?!?!
Why didn't they clean up the mess????

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Haha, they created a new, non-backwards compatible document type for Vista Office? That is hilarious. Microsoft Office was finished in 1997 and there hasn't been an important addition since. But they are paying all those developers, and making a lot of money selling the same program to people yearly (the same model used by EA Sports) so they have to put new stuff out each year.

I was hired in the QA department when I first started working here, and I had to use Word a little bit. Happily, luckily, that was years ago and if I can help it I'd never go back. It's desire to think for you, interpret what it thinks you mean to do and just generally fuck things up is unprecedented. I mean, nothing is ever going to top Office hiding all the possible commands for its menus (mantra from people who really, really like MS Office: "You can turn that off!") but going forward with what I am sure is a great new format for Vista is going to be right up there.

And you're absolutely correct in that another sentence could be added. People are willing to accept the sandbox mentality of Microsoft, and the horrible middle managers of MS still can't provide enough information to allow people to get real work done.

(And unfortunately, OpenOffice is started to get to the point where it is "finished" as well. Will they bloat that sucker up and make it just as bad as Word? Every other software development team in human history indicates that this is likely.)


edit: accept/except user error!

[hygraed]

I desperately wish I could just revert to Office 2000 which does everything I need, runs several orders of magnitude faster on my aging laptop, and takes up about 25% of the hard drive space that Office 2007 does. Unfortunately I have to acquaint myself with Office 2007 in order to be able to comprehend the nebulous questions everyone has about MLA citation or whatever new bullshit Microsoft tossed in there.

That's another thing. Who the hell needs Microsoft Word to manage their bibliographies and citations for them? In my day we typed out our own goddamn parenthetical references and Works Cited pages. It's actually much less of a pain in the ass to do it by hand than it is to try to wrestle Word into doing what you want it to.

It just boggles my mind that Microsoft is wasting the considerable talent of its programmers by requiring these esoteric new "features" that nobody really wants but has to deal with anyway. More often than not I find myself twisting my nipples in frustration and firing up WordPad--then going back into Word because I forgot and saved my document in DocX.

GOD DAMN SON

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Since the big text game I am working on is months off, I get wanderlust and think of what I'd work on next. It is also the only way for me to generate game ideas: get past the point of no return with the current game. (Where the "point of no return" means that I have done more work on it than is left to go to finish it.)

Some people have had success in making a text game by writing it out as a short story first. I've never done that, so I thought I'd give it a try. I ended up using Google Docs (whatever they call their word processor) for it. It travels with me, I don't need to worry about throwing the latest version of the document to a sandisk, it's not at all bloated and it doesn't try to think for me. My working theory is that the younger a word processor, the better it is.

Although, you know what, if I thought there were any way to export the files into ASCII easily, I'd use Bank Street Writer for my Atari 800. I grew up using the version for the Apple II and it was awesome: black background, friendly green letters, what you typed is what you got. If they threw a spellcheck into that mofo I'd be thrilled. It's all I want.

(Well, a central repository for files, like with Google Documents, is something I want as well. So never mind. Maybe some Google Genius can put together a Bank Street Writer skin for it or something.)

[hygraed]

Also. I am a charitable man but I am not here to do your homework for you. I had my fill of Pascal when I did the assignments for my own class; I am not going to do them again because you don't listen in class. Thank you.

[draaal]

Since 1998, I've used either wordpad or the input screen in hotmail for writing (used nano for awhile as well when it became the default program to view manuals through the command line). I don't even remember what I use for programming, just a generic processor that lets you linebreak and format comments without any issues.

Gunpad++? Or something like that.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Since 1998, I've used either wordpad or the input screen in hotmail for writing (used nano for awhile as well when it became the default program to view manuals through the command line). I don't even remember what I use for programming, just a generic processor that lets you linebreak and format comments without any issues.

Gunpad++? Or something like that.

Ben "Syntax" Parrish got me hooked on EditPlus. I still use it to search for text strings at work, instead of using Eclipse (slow) and regular, old, built-in Microsoft search (which is inaccurate, often returning no results when there are in fact results).

[draaal]

Actually, the program I use is called "thegun" and is included as an example program with masm32 (most notable features are margins, word wrap, and find/replace)

Around 2001 I believe, I discovered the program while learning asm; removed the name from the program, added a more precise line break system, and preliminary support for macros so I wouldn't need to worry about indenting or seperating my comments from the source (plus it appears a few other modifications for the text to output correctly (not garble on write because I needed the program to compile)).

Funny comments I wrote half a decade ago...

Memory outputs to (so and so). Roll that fucker up and retool

Inconsistant break prevents compile and gives an error. Quote first address and rework to allow a more precise flow. See manual chapter 42 section 7x6 for precise instructions

Comment number 73: See comment number 25

Comment number 25: Refer to comment 49 if code example does not provide enough guidance.

Comment number 49: Reference example 73

Stopped after that. But its funny that I just noticed I've kept the exact same program around since 2001 for programming and word processing.

Is text highlighting the newest end all feature in the computer science world?

[Jack Straw]

[AArdvark]

You are standing west of a white house. There is a mailbox next to you. In front of the mailbox is a large paperclip that seems to be tapping incessantly, to get your attention.

There is a paperclip here.

[WEST OF HOUSE] >__


THE
HIDE ASSISTANT NOW
AARDVARK

[hygraed]

That's why I like Office 2000. They finally got the message and asked the paperclip to fuck off.

[bruce]

I have noticed that Microsoft has been getting a 'my toys in the sandbox' mentality.

WELCOME TO 1986!

Bruce