* Dan Griswold (dgriswol@rochester.rr.com) [031220 06:55]: > Matt Price <matt.price@utoronto.ca> writes: > > > A student has sent me a paper as an email attachment. It's an > > MSWord document -- which should be fine, since OOo and AbiWord and > > KWord all open MS docs -- but it comes from a Mac, I'm assuming a > > pre-osX mac. Mutt tells me it's of type: application/x-macbinary > > anyway, I can open the file in OpenOffice, but it's a total mess -- > > control characters everywhere, illegible garbage top and bottom, no > > footnotes. > > > Is there, then, a general strategy for dealing with these icky MacOS > > files? > > I've had this problem, too. I decided that the Linux-based converters > had not been programmed to handle these early Mac formats. My only > solution was to have someone save the file either in a current MSWord > format or in something open or quasi-open, such as HTML or RTF. Of course, if you're in a position to do so (accepting applicants' resumes, students' papers, etc.) flat-out refusal of all non-free file formats is a good way to go. Many times, unfortunately, we find ourselves not in this position, but one in which non-free "de-facto 'standards'" must be accepted. IMO, closed data file formats are the worst threat to free computing today. It's the case in which not only are users restricted in the usual ways of non-free software (not being able to perform security audits / bug fixes on their important applications' source), but indeed their own data are kept locked away from them in little black boxes. This is an effect which must be countered at every turn. good times, Vineet -- http://www.doorstop.net/ -- "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin
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