What's this about?
A browser-based viewer for Office Open XML documents, and Ambient CSS v3, described as "Blender meets CSS".
Why is an OOXML viewer interesting on the same day as the LibreOffice story?
Because they are the two ends of the same problem. OOXML is the specification behind `.docx` and `.xlsx` — thousands of pages, and the ecosystem's answer to reading it has been "use LibreOffice." A browser-based viewer is the opposite bet: implement enough of the format directly to display it, with no dependency at all. Both approaches appearing on the front page the same day is a good illustration of why this problem never gets cleanly solved.
Why is it worth noticing?
OOXML viewer 52 points, Ambient CSS 199 points and 68 comments
- "Blender meets CSS" is a claim about doing 3D-style ambient lighting in pure CSS, which is the kind of thing CSS keeps turning out to be capable of.
- The OOXML viewer is a small tool solving a real annoyance — viewing an attachment without opening an office suite.
- Both are the sort of thing that gets built because someone was irritated, which remains the most reliable source of good tools.