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Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc,comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc,comp.os.linux.advocacy Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!paladin.american.edu!news.jhu.edu!aplcenmp!night.primate.wisc.edu!sdd.hp.com!swrinde!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!news.inap.net!news1!not-for-mail From: root@dyson.iquest.net (John S. Dyson) Subject: Re: Historic Opportunity facing Free Unix (was Re: The Lai/Baker paper, benchmarks, and the world of free UNIX) X-Nntp-Posting-Host: dyson.iquest.net Message-ID: <4l6tto$5mg@dyson.iquest.net> Sender: news@iquest.net (News Admin) Organization: John S. Dyson's Machine References: <4ki055$60l@Radon.Stanford.EDU> <4l2u61$fdg@solaria.cc.gatech.edu> <4l4crd$nus@miso.cs.uq.edu.au> <31769650.284D5C90@lambert.org> Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 02:31:20 GMT Lines: 22 Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.development.system:22010 comp.unix.bsd.386bsd.misc:769 comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:3414 comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc:3263 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:17885 comp.os.linux.advocacy:46676 In article <31769650.284D5C90@lambert.org>, Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> wrote: >Warwick Allison wrote: >] >] Too short sighted. Did Netscape go and write a Word6 compatible >] WWW browser? No. Applications *don't* live forever (Word6 >] cannot load Word3 documents, for example). > >For what it's worth, "The File Formats Handbook" by Born states >that Word6 format is not documented because it is proprietary >and only available under non-disclosure. > >So you would have a hell of a time legally writing a clone that >could read the file formats in any event. > One FreeBSD contributor friend of my wrote a Word6 to Nroff approximate converter -- he DID have to get the file format under non-disclosure. From what I hear it is complex and insecure. However technically terrible it is, it is probably the predominant Windows word processing file format. Lots of .DOC files lying around out there!!! John