On 2025-07-28 at 11:52, Andy Smith wrote: > Hi, > > On Mon, Jul 28, 2025 at 10:44:36AM -0500, Richard Owlett wrote: > >> Does Debian have a spreadsheet program that can competently >> read/write xlsx format? > > I have never had an issue with LibreCalc's xls support. If an xls > file is so complicated that LibreOffice can't read/write it properly, > I suspect you will find it unusable in anything but Microsoft > software since that is their proprietary format.
I did see a blog post somewhere recently from someone griping about how unnecessarily dense, complex, and impenetrable the Microsoft Office document formats are, to such an extent that it makes implementing support for them difficult verging on impossible. There was the suggestion that Microsoft chose that development path on purpose, specifically in order to make it harder for anyone else to interoperate properly with those formats. Unfortunately I don't remember where that post was, and haven't been able to find it again in searching offhand. It might have been somewhere GNU-related? But I can't swear to that. -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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