"The idea of things like SGML and HTML—interchangeable, standardized file formats—didn’t really take hold until the Internet made it practical to interchange documents in the first place; this was a decade later than the Office binary formats were first invented."
Put another way, Microsoft didn't care about interop until they were convicted of illegal monopolistic practices and they couldn't get away with the kind of shit reflected in this spec anymore.
Put another way, Microsoft didn't care about interop until they were convicted of illegal monopolistic practices and they couldn't get away with the kind of shit reflected in this spec anymore.