4 ms·

> Office does a lot of things their own way and without a lot of the cross-compatibility that's a feature of most Microsoft products. That's probably because u

by krn 8y ago

> Office does a lot of things their own way and without a lot of the cross-compatibility that's a feature of most Microsoft products. That's probably because unlike most Microsoft products, Office is cross-platform and has to support multiple operating systems, including MacOS, iOS, and Android.

gmueckl 8y ago
Isn't Office for Mac a completely diverged fork from an old Windows version of Office? I remember some blog posts from the understaffed Mac Office team stating that much several years ago. I don't know if they rebased it in the meantime. The posts read as if the big Office team was focused entirely on Windows and everything else was done by understaffed teams struggling to keep up.
- bena 8y ago
  Funny story, Excel was on the Mac before Windows.
- marpstar 8y ago
  Earlier this year they put out a blog post that announced that their cross-platform versions share a common codebase for "core functionality". https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/Shared-Office-codebase-for-Windows-Mac-iOS-and-Android-means/ba-p/150291 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/Share...
  - tragic 8y ago
    Does 'core functionality' include opening a UTF-8-encoded CSV file properly?
- magnawave 8y ago
  Not anymore. From what I’ve been told from an insider, the latest versions are derived from a common code base now, with platform specific bits separate for each platform. The latest office for Mac looks quite a bit like the windows version now (for once) so it’s not too surprising.
- pjmlp 8y ago
  Since 2014 not anymore. The Office team did a couple of session at CppCon about how they refactored the code. "CppCon 2014: Zaika Antoun "Microsoft w/ C++ to Deliver Office Across Different Platforms" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HROqnw-nf4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HROqnw-nf4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGMoRu5yrVc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGMoRu5yrVc

by krn 8y ago

gmueckl 8y ago

Isn't Office for Mac a completely diverged fork from an old Windows version of Office? I remember some blog posts from the understaffed Mac Office team stating that much several years ago. I don't know if they rebased it in the meantime. The posts read as if the big Office team was focused entirely on Windows and everything else was done by understaffed teams struggling to keep up.

bena 8y ago
Funny story, Excel was on the Mac before Windows.
marpstar 8y ago
Earlier this year they put out a blog post that announced that their cross-platform versions share a common codebase for "core functionality". https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/Shared-Office-codebase-for-Windows-Mac-iOS-and-Android-means/ba-p/150291 https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/Office-365-Blog/Share...
- tragic 8y ago
  Does 'core functionality' include opening a UTF-8-encoded CSV file properly?
magnawave 8y ago
Not anymore. From what I’ve been told from an insider, the latest versions are derived from a common code base now, with platform specific bits separate for each platform. The latest office for Mac looks quite a bit like the windows version now (for once) so it’s not too surprising.
pjmlp 8y ago
Since 2014 not anymore. The Office team did a couple of session at CppCon about how they refactored the code. "CppCon 2014: Zaika Antoun "Microsoft w/ C++ to Deliver Office Across Different Platforms" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HROqnw-nf4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HROqnw-nf4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGMoRu5yrVc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGMoRu5yrVc