On: Google Docs Ditching Old Microsoft Export Formats(...

[EvanAnderson]

Given that there's no further development happening at Microsoft on the DOC, XLS, and PPT formats it's unclear to me why there's any advantage to Google, from a code maintenance standpoint, to removing these formats. If Google was having to invest labor in maintaining the export functionality I suppose I could understand, but I would think the export code is long-since debugged and working. What makes the cost of maintaining this old feature so high as to warrant its removal?

[Shooti → EvanAnderson]

Also worth noting that the article has since been updated to clarify that it's only the 97-2003 format which has been dropped. Export to 2003-2007 .doc .xls and .ppt formats are still supported. Plus from the way it's phrased it seems like import from 97-2003 formats will still be supported, you just can't export them that way.

[alanh → Shooti]

Okay, linkbait headline, then.

[timdorr → alanh]

It was via a clarification from Google PR. The article as originally submitted was correctly reporting, as the message from Google indicated a dropping of all .doc, .xls, and .ppt format export support.

[brudgers → Shooti]

2007 Office software defaults to the new format, e.g. .docx and .xlsx

[moystard → Shooti]

It makes more sense now, it is just a non news then.

[mcpherrinm → EvanAnderson]

Any changes in their own internal format would surely require maintenance of the legacy Microsoft formats, which would be quite burdensome I expect.

[brudgers → mcpherrinm]

Yeah, it's not as if Google could abstract or overload the export function.

[wahnfrieden → brudgers]

Easier said than done. As a general principle, existing features introduce maintenance and create drag when adding new features, so they better be worth it.

[brudgers → wahnfrieden]

It's easier to justify when you don't have customers, just data sources.

The reason to support .xls is that lots of other software besides Microsoft office use it and thus lots of people benefit from compatibility.

[wahnfrieden → brudgers]

You can still import it, you just can't export to an especially old version of .xls.

[toyg → wahnfrieden]

Just do it like Microsoft products do: big warning that you could lose new features whenever you save to the old format.

I think this is a big mistake for Google.

[codeka → EvanAnderson]

I don't think it's that simple. For example, currently Google Docs doesn't support merged cells in tables. If they add support for that in Google Docs, it means they would need to add support for it in all of the exporters as well.

So even though the format isn't changing, the subset of the format that Google works with is.