Quote:
Originally Posted by pidgeon92
I believe an app needs to have an agreement with Microsoft to convert .doc files?
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No. You do not have to have an agreement.
You just have to be able to parse an undocumented file format that is difficult to open on anything non-MSWord BY DESIGN.
In "good old times" when MSOffice 6.0 ruled, .doc file was basically an rtf file, so anybody could open the documents. Then MSOffice 97 came and with it a new format. It took tens of thousands man-hours to have it reverse-engineered for open-source programs, such as OpenOffice.org, and even then it is impossible to open and display/print it with 100% accuracy on anything than the right version of MSWord.
OpenOffice.org, now forked to Libre Office, can open .doc files if you do not want to pay over a hundred bucks for the cheapest version of MSWord. Besides rtf, Calibre can also convert OpenOffice.org writer format, the .odt file. Please keep in mind that Calibre was originally developed for connecting Sony Reader PRS-500 to PC with Linux. Calibre runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OSX and on FreeBSD, so the author can not rely on an installed MSWord like some other tools. If Calibre wanted to convert .doc files it would have to use component that works on all above mentioned systems, or the author would have to write such parser in python. Which is highly non-trivial undertaking.
The difficulty with communicating with Apple products is caused by Apple. You can't just connect an Apple product, such as iPad, iPhone, iPad to a PC with Windows and just drag and drop files to it as if it was an external disk. You have to use iTunes, because Apple doesn't let you - the owner of the device - access your own device. They do not want you copying your own files to the device and they are going to great lengths to prevent you from installing your own programs. All programs you want to install on an Apple device have to come from an Apple app-store and they want you to purchase your content that way as well.