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Why
not use a more "popular" Microsoft file format?
The
main problem with most of the Microsoft formats are that they are proprietary
and constantly changing. Microsoft does not officially publish information
on many of its most popular file formats because it wants to remain free
to change those formats in future versions.
A
standard that always changes is not really a standard. Links established
with other applications get broken and have to redone. For example, you
do not want to constantly work out new ways to get mail merging working
every time you upgrade. In a like manner you don't want your e-commerce
system to stop working because an upgrade has changed the file format.
Regular changes of the file format affect performance and cause other
problems. For example, users who upgraded from Microsoft Access 97 to
Access 2000 found that their data files doubled in size. While this change
allowed Microsoft to better support Asian languages, in practical terms
it meant many processes for users of Access took twice as long to perform,
with no benefit gained.
A
true open standard should not ideally change over long periods of time.
ODBC addresses some of these compatibility issues but for performance
reasons native access to the file format is sometimes essential.
Recently
Microsoft has begun cautious adoption of XML. However, XML is a very
inefficient method of storing large volumes of data and was not designed
specifically with data access in mind. Large XML files put more workload
on computer networks, without gaining any worthwhile benefits relative to
the cost.
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