Microsoft claims Word2007 flaws are features.
By taiguy
@taiguy (478)
United States
April 13, 2007 4:05pm CST
In the words of an unnamed MIcrosoft spokemushroom: "In fact, the behavior observed in Microsoft Word 2007 in this instance is a by-design behavior that improves security and stability by exiting Microsoft Word when it has run out of options to try and reliably display a malformed Word document... The sample code in the malformed word document supplied cause Microsoft Word to crash, and users can restart the application to resume normal operations."
Let me see if I understand Microsoft's philosophy about malformed documents that crash Word 2007. When a program crashes, and being a programmer I know this is always caused by a programmer error, somehow it is protecting the user and increasing the "stability" of the application. Not sure if there are other definitions of stability that I have not heard of, but to me stability is the epitome of an application or operating system that does not require to be restarted.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@Metallideth (572)
• United States
14 Apr 07
I do that kind of thing all the time (usually jokingly, of course). For instance, I never say that I'm lazy. . .I say I'm "inclined toward convenience," and one day I was talking to one of my friends about a music downloading site I started, and how it was kind of like being Robin Hood because I was "stealing" from the rich and giving to. . .well, whoever.
1 person likes this
@Myrrdin (3599)
• Canada
13 Apr 07
As another responder stated this is not a new tactic, heck it isn't even new for microsoft. Microsoft has made this claim about a variety of their software packages including older versions of word and Windows. Programmers never like to admit fault, and Micro$oft programmers doubly so.
1 person likes this
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
13 Apr 07
This kind of garbage is neither new, nor uncommon. Software and game developers love to claim that bugs are actually features. It's their way of acting less incompetent. Now I don't understand how they can act competent when they claim to "intentionally" add features that cause crashes, but there are always fanboys who will back them up.
1 person likes this
@xfahctor (14113)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
13 Apr 07
Wow, amazing new way to spin. So if i understand this correctly, programs that crash are not buggy as long as they were designed to crash? So then this means if my car breaks down, its not because of mechanical failure, it's a feature. Interesting aproach to tech support isn't it. Funny, I've never heard of a linux of os/x program that was "designed to crash". Perhaps they should look into this when they release more software for these operating systems.
