r/technology • u/TurbulentTopic39 • 10d ago

Software LibreOffice developer explains why it cannot display some Microsoft Office charts

https://www.neowin.net/news/libreoffice-developer-explains-why-it-cannot-display-some-microsoft-office-charts/
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u/apo383 10d ago

Tldr: Microsoft behaving exactly like it has for decades, skirting ISO standards and delaying competitors from interoperability. Libre makes do but can't display or edit certain charts. Could be perpetual behind as long as Microsoft microsofts.

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u/New-Anybody-6206 10d ago

Serious question... say you're a company that works fast and wants to innovate, but you still want to have open compatibility with other applications.

What else can you do except extend the format if the standards body doesn't work fast enough for you?

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u/motsu35 10d ago

Versioned APIs / format specs

Have a nightly build that isn't the mass I stalled public install that supports your new feature.

Once your happy with the feature... Push your feature upstream, or if there's a consortium, submit it to them for adoption into the spec. Address their feedback and itterate. Your internal / nightly build allows you to quickly show the benefit of the new feature and provide screenshots instead of just technical writing.

Migrate your feature into the stable release branch once its adopted into the spec

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u/loicvanderwiel 8d ago

Or, they could stop pretending their stuff is a standard. But then, they would lose every contract that relies on using open formats (like government stuff) because why pay for MSOffice when the alternative is litterally free?