So I guess we both agree that the resulting complexity of the file format itself had a lot to do with an intention of lock-in. Which directly contradicts Joel's first statement: "are deliberately obfuscated". :-)
Also, regarding web apps, I like to think of it as the building, not of "perfect systems", but "self-correcting systems". The web, with all its chaos, it still more self-correcting than MS Office has been - in fact, even from your comment it does seem that the intention was only lock-in and not improvement of file formats (other than perhaps an improvement in MS bottom line).
Oddly, even the benefits to the MS bottom line now seems more short sighted. E.g. the ongoing fiasco that is the Windows 10 auto-upgrade. [1] Someday I expect to read post-mortems on the failure of Windows 10's so called perpetual upgrade policy (i.e the notion that there will be no more version numbers after 10) which link the failure to their refusal to build self-correcting systems.
[1] Personally, I don't think we have seen the worst of it just yet.
I'm posting too much on this topic :-) Just a quick word from someone whose job it was to write filters for these file formats. They are not deliberately obfuscated. They are just the product of long lived legacy projects with short deadlines and poor process. It is absolutely obvious when you work with the formats that this is the case. Word in particular was clearly just a dump of the internal data structures in the app. It's not even that complicated -- the complicated bits come later and they are all for either backwards compatibility or for the fast save feature (or whatever it was called). The fast save, in particular, is complicated and is that way because it is append only. It is essentially a series of patches on the original data structures. Yes, it will make you want to rip your hair out, but it is very, very obvious why it's that way.
Also, regarding web apps, I like to think of it as the building, not of "perfect systems", but "self-correcting systems". The web, with all its chaos, it still more self-correcting than MS Office has been - in fact, even from your comment it does seem that the intention was only lock-in and not improvement of file formats (other than perhaps an improvement in MS bottom line).
Oddly, even the benefits to the MS bottom line now seems more short sighted. E.g. the ongoing fiasco that is the Windows 10 auto-upgrade. [1] Someday I expect to read post-mortems on the failure of Windows 10's so called perpetual upgrade policy (i.e the notion that there will be no more version numbers after 10) which link the failure to their refusal to build self-correcting systems.
[1] Personally, I don't think we have seen the worst of it just yet.