Microsoft Releases First Open XML SDK

Kurtz'sKompund tips us to news that Microsoft has released a finished version of the Open XML software development kit. Microsoft has made additional resources available with the download. Quoting Techworld: "The SDK includes an application programming interface (API) simplifying the creation of code for searching documents, creating documents, validating document parts, modifying data and other tasks, Microsoft said. The API can be used in any language supported by the Microsoft .Net Framework, the company said. The current SDK supports the version of Open XML supported by Office 2007, which is not the same as that ratified as a standard by the ISO, due to changes effected during the ratification process."

MO2K7OXML, not Open XML

[jkrise]

This is Microsoft Office 2007 Open XML, not Open XML. An API for producing documents containing deprecated features is of no use to anyone bar Microsoft, who can claim tha they are making available tools that support a yet-to-be-defined standard.

For all we know, the next version of Office will support the officially defined and documented standard, which will have hundreds of changes compared to the current O2K7 format of Open XML. Thus, everyone will have to recode all new stuff just to stay in sync. A wasted effort, in my opinion.

Not An ISO Standard

[John Hasler]

> The current SDK supports the version of Open XML supported by Office 2007, which is not
> the same as that ratified as a standard by the ISO

No version of Microsoft's "Open XML" has been ratified as a standard by the ISO.

Re:MO2K7OXML, not Open XML

[Darkness404]

What this needs is a promise that Office 2007 and this API will be synced to the ISO specification.

No, promises are easily broken by MS, we need it to sync to the ISO specs, not a promise. Think of all the other promises MS has made... We promise that Vista will be innovative, new, fast, out soon, etc. We promise that we will embrace an open Internet (well until we manage to kill Netscape that is...) We promise that OS/2 is the future. And more. MS has been full of promises but has never managed to fulfill any of the ones that help anyone.

Re:It's irrelevant to the ISO

[shutdown -p now]

Uh, everything in DotNet is implemented in a proprietary dev environment.

Er? C#, CLI (including binary image format and instruction codes), and the Base Class Library are all *ahem* ISO standards.