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"New unified file format" ... isn't the same sort of nonsense we went thru with Office applications that led to the nightmare of trying to open the files in oth

"New unified file format" ... isn't the same sort of nonsense we went thru with Office applications that led to the nightmare of trying to open the files in other applications?

fredoralive 13y ago
It's an undocumented binary format rather than a documented XML one. The format seems to have been designed with low RAM / CPU usage (ie: iOS) in mind. But seeing as nobody else seems to have bothered to actually add support for the old iWork formats despite them being documented XML, the situation is basically unchanged in reality.
- lazerwalker 13y ago
  The difference is in a hypothetical future where Apple no longer supports iWork but you need to access old documents. If it's a documented XML format, you can theoretically write your own code pretty easily to get your data out of it. Undocumented binary? Good luck with that.
- Samuel_Michon 13y ago
  According to John Siracusa, Apple made the new iWork file formats so that changes could sync better with iCloud. The idea being that it’s more economical to sync lots of small packages instead of sending one XML file. Apparently, the new file formats use a Google technology called ‘Protocol Buffers’[1]. According to Google, Protocol Buffers have some advantages over XML: they’re simpler, smaller, faster, less ambiguous, and generate data access classes that are easier to use programmatically. Here are some more details on the new file formats: http://pxlnv.com/blog/exploring-the-new-iwork-for-mac-file-formats/ http://pxlnv.com/blog/exploring-the-new-iwork-for-mac-file-f... [1] https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/overview?csw=1 https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/overview...
peterkelly 13y ago
Yep. The whole OOXML/ODF debate and standardisation efforts we went through close to a decade ago have been completely ignored by Apple, who've come up with a file format straight out of the 1990s. Meanwhile, the more enlightened among us are focused on formats like Markdown and HTML5, which actually have non-zero interoperability.

"New unified file format" ... isn't the same sort of nonsense we went thru with Office applications that led to the nightmare of trying to open the files in other applications?

fredoralive 13y ago

It's an undocumented binary format rather than a documented XML one. The format seems to have been designed with low RAM / CPU usage (ie: iOS) in mind. But seeing as nobody else seems to have bothered to actually add support for the old iWork formats despite them being documented XML, the situation is basically unchanged in reality.

lazerwalker 13y ago
The difference is in a hypothetical future where Apple no longer supports iWork but you need to access old documents. If it's a documented XML format, you can theoretically write your own code pretty easily to get your data out of it. Undocumented binary? Good luck with that.
Samuel_Michon 13y ago
According to John Siracusa, Apple made the new iWork file formats so that changes could sync better with iCloud. The idea being that it’s more economical to sync lots of small packages instead of sending one XML file. Apparently, the new file formats use a Google technology called ‘Protocol Buffers’[1]. According to Google, Protocol Buffers have some advantages over XML: they’re simpler, smaller, faster, less ambiguous, and generate data access classes that are easier to use programmatically. Here are some more details on the new file formats: http://pxlnv.com/blog/exploring-the-new-iwork-for-mac-file-formats/ http://pxlnv.com/blog/exploring-the-new-iwork-for-mac-file-f... [1] https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/overview?csw=1 https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/docs/overview...

peterkelly 13y ago

Yep. The whole OOXML/ODF debate and standardisation efforts we went through close to a decade ago have been completely ignored by Apple, who've come up with a file format straight out of the 1990s. Meanwhile, the more enlightened among us are focused on formats like Markdown and HTML5, which actually have non-zero interoperability.