Joel starts out by telling you that Microsoft's file formats are not the product of a demented Borg mind and are not impossible to read or create correctly. An

Joel starts out by telling you that Microsoft's file formats are not the product of a demented Borg mind and are not impossible to read or create correctly. And then he spends the rest of the article explaining why the file formats are so demented and impossible to read or create correctly. Which isn't the same thing at all. Just because there is a rich history of it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time decisions doesn't mean the end result is any good. There is a serious, deep, and interesting problem of scaling and complexity management that could be discussed here. But Microsoft's approach seems to have been one of embracing complexity. And Joel's role, today, is just defending that approach.