I'm not sure that I buy the too complex argument. RTF is pretty well supported elsewhere and supports most of what word supports, except the bits that probably shouldn't be incorporated into a document format anyway, like some of the macro stuff which is just plain dangerous.

A little documentation goes a long way. If the word format(s) were documented, it would be possible for other programs to interoperate with them. But that takes will, and the vision to see that open formats generally benefit everyone, not just the originators. Proprietory formats are not illegal, or even immoral, just bad for business--for everyone, producers and consumers alike--but try convincing marketing types of that.

With the word format, I often think that the reluctance to document it is as much to do with embarrassment over some of the cruft that made it's way in there in the early years, and persists for compatibility, as any malevolance. The same applies in other areas also.

Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
Lingua non convalesco, consenesco et abolesco. -- Rule 1 has a caveat! -- Who broke the cabal?
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

In reply to Re^10: Perl 6 Module manager by BrowserUk
in thread Perl 6 Module manager by zer

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.