Reply to post: Re: "But the latest version is incompatible with the one you've got."

Re: "But the latest version is incompatible with the one you've got."

Stockholm syndrome, eh? So, if new features require a new format, what should a dev do? They can’t put the new features into the old format... ooh, I know, they can be Apple and just ‘upgrade’ the old format the first time the user opens the filein the new version. Hmm... gee, what happens to users who don’t have or can’t use for some reason the new version? Well, that’s too bloody bad, ain’t it?

So then users either must ‘upgrade’ or face not being able to use files from some other users, or devs must shoehorn new features into the old format... forever and ever, amen. Which works until the format is a huge kludgey mess (can you say MS Word .DOC format? I knew you could) and the competition delivers the same features is an easier-to-access format (ODT, anyone) and threatens to eat your lunch.

I figure that MS Office 2019 will either be the first version with a new file format (may I suggest .DOCXYY, .DOCX is way too girly?) or the last hurrah of .DOCX. if only because .DOCX _started_ as a huge kludgey mess and got worse.