Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Microsoft docx - Macintosh File System resource forks return

Do you have Word 2007?  Have you ever renamed a .docx file to a .zip file and opened it to see what was inside.  I have known that the docx file was a zip file for a while, but lately work has been forcing me to read up on Microsoft’s Open Packaging Conventions and it has been very insightful.  What I noticed is that in 2007 Microsoft introduced the same technology that Apple had introduced in its 1984 Macintosh File System. Wikipedia: “MFS was notable both for introducing resource forks to allow storage of structured data, and for storing metadata needed to support the graphical user interface of Mac OS.” Wow! 23 years later Microsoft has created the OPC with content forks to allow storage of structured data, and for the storing the metadata needed to support the GUI of its applications.  Apple was always ahead of its time.

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