February 23, 2004

Resolved: Word blows

Just a little rant: if I ever start a company or have a position where people who write requirements/specifications documents must obey me, I will force them to use a plain-text format so I can easily see what promises to the client they’ve actually changed between versions. Some sort of wiki syntax (easy headings/lists/tables) but without the MashedWords. It can still be translated into something “presentable” but anyone can get diffs via a web client (ViewCVS) or a standalone diff viewer (like the one built into IDEA). Or even – get this! – just using ‘cvs diff -u’!

I know there are tools built into Word for this, but why should I learn another tool (one that only works in this program, with this technology, and will be removed in favor of a "better" that's overengineered times 10 in a year or two) when one exists and does a small, simple job that I can build other tools around?

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