NoOOXML

Brian Jones is answering in his blog port of yesterday on Spreadsheet formula bugs to the comments made by Rob Weir on the bugs in the spreadsheet functions. In his blog post, he is pointing to the Microsoft strategy:

I'd like to give Rob the benefit of the doubt and assume that he's doing this in order to help improve the spec, and not just to try and find a reason to block it.

I think Mr Jones has not seen the <NO>OOXML banner on the top of the Rob's page?

In regards to the comments that Rob made around spreadsheet functions, I would hope those could pretty easily get handled at the ballot resolution meeting by just making the following corrections: […]

OOXML is a coffin nail for ECMA. Wasn't it their task to prepare the standard for fast-tracking? Why does Rob still find these rather obvious bugs? Quantity doesn't matter, we need a full specification of the format and appropriate patent conditions. This is the bare minimum. And then we will still question the rationale behind two ISO standards for the very same purpose.

But given the tricks they played with the European Commission I can't see any reasonable compromise offer from Microsoft.