ARTICLE - Why the MS Office file formats is so complicated

[Michael ODonnell]

A description of the layout of the recently published Microsoft
Office file formats along with some illuminating comments
about the various historical influences that lead up to their
current states:

   http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/02/19.html

Quite the tangled mess and very hard to write compliant FOSS
apps against, but (at least on the surface) apparently not
the result of an actively evil intent.