Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:18023 comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d:703 Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!rutgers!ucsd!nprdc!malloy From: malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.binaries.ibm.pc.d Subject: Re: PK361.EXE Keywords: foot removal from mouth Message-ID: <750@james.nprdc.arpa> Date: 10 Aug 88 22:01:09 GMT References:<356@marob.MASA.COM> <11814@steinmetz.ge.com> Reply-To: malloy@nprdc.arpa (Sean Malloy) Organization: Navy Personnel R&D Center, San Diego Lines: 33 In article <11814@steinmetz.ge.com> davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes: |In article msmith@topaz.rutgers.edu (Mark Robert Smith) writes: | || Steve, Sorry, but stealing somebody else's market is a standard || practice inthe world of software. Else, why are word processors able || to read WordStar's format? Why can Excel read Lotus 123? Why can || Paradox import dBase and RBase files? It is standard to attempt to || grab somebody else's users. | | What's not standard is to write Wordstar or 1-2-3 files which can not |be read by the original program. The idea seems to be "once you use my |program you can never go back." Why should Phil Katz be any different than some of the big software houses? Lotus 1-2-3 v2.0 .WK1 files can't be read by Lotus 1-2-3 v1.A, but 1-2-3 automatically writes a .WK1 file when you save your spreadsheet. You can read a WordPerfect 4.2 file into WordPerfect 5.0, but the file WordPerfect 5.0 writes can't be read by Wordperfect 4.2 -- and there's no way to convert it back, while Lotus at least has a WK1 to WKS conversion utility. If you add a new function to a program that reads the function types out of the file the program is operating on, then there's no way you can keep total downward compatibility, because the old program won't know how to operate on the new information. At least PKARC had the -oct flags that let you write ARC files that SEA's ARC program would read. That's more than WordPerfect does. Sean Malloy Navy Personnel Research & Development Center San Diego, CA 92152-6800 malloy@nprdc.arpa