back to article Guess who's back at Microsoft? Excel, Word creator Charles Simonyi

Microsoft has acquired Intentional Software on undisclosed terms. You may or may not have heard of Intentional Software: it develops a platform for team productivity apps. More importantly, by gobbling up this biz, Microsoft has recaptured Charles Simonyi – the man who spearheaded the building of Redmond's flagship …

  1. Stoneshop
    Trollface

    Microsoft has acquired Intentional Software

    Nice change from their software that kindof unintentionally congealed into being.

  2. Flakk
    Trollface

    Thank Goodness

    Whew! I thought you were going to announce the return of Karen Fries, responsible for the Ribbon Menu in Office... and Microsoft Bob.

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Gimp

      "Bob" would have been fine with replaceable icons.

      I'd always liked this one for some reason.

  3. kain preacher

    Maybe they brought back to fix office as no there understands the code. IE they fired every one that knew.

  4. Herby

    Eve of destruction...

    Ah, you may leave here, for four days in space,

    But when your return, it's the same old place,

    Apologies to Barry Mcguire

  5. NanoMeter

    Oh?

    I thought it was Steve Ballmer for a moment.

  6. Craig 2

    First day back at Microsoft: Takes a look at the current Office suite source code........ AAAAAARRRRGGGGGHHH!!!

  7. Kev99 Silver badge

    If he developed both Word & Excel, why are they so different in keyboard commands for common to both actions?

    1. Roland6 Silver badge
      Coat

      The difference was 'Intentional'...

    2. jake Silver badge

      Easy answer.

      Originally they weren't ... The harder to answer question is "who changed it, and why?"

  8. Captain DaFt

    Woah!

    "I am excited, stoked, amped, and elated to join forces again with Microsoft"

    Must've been one Hell of an income raise for him!

    1. Chemical Bob

      Re: Woah!

      I thought it was sarcasm.

    2. charless

      Re: Woah!

      I can see how it may appear like that (also the remark below about sarcasm). The "boring" fact is that I am really excited to work within Microsoft. All of these complicated scenarios that we all yearn for require great depth of IP and implementation capacity that only companies of the size and tradition of Microsoft have, and we can all agree that Microsoft top management deserves a lot of credit to be venturesome and look for synergies.

      Thanks for being interested and involved in the industry.

      c

      1. Pompous Git Silver badge

        Re: Woah!

        "Thanks for being interested and involved in the industry."
        Thanks for Excel and Word. I'm retired now, but I made a packet training end users back in the 90s.

  9. Dwarf

    Dear Mr Simonyi

    As you clearly understand office products, please can you get rid of that damn ribbon thing and put a proper menu back - one that doesn't take a good chunk of my screen real estate and hide things behind hieroglyphics that I'm supposed to remember. I'm no good at ancient Egyptian or Mayan hieroglyphics, but I can read words and process their meaning quickly.

    You might also want to explain why menu's are good to the millennials - and try and sort out the Windows 10 debacle too.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      'I'm no good at ancient Egyptian or Mayan hieroglyphics'

      Do you know why 'Hungarian notation' is called that way? His last name is an hint... maybe hieroglyphs may be more readable...

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: 'I'm no good at ancient Egyptian or Mayan hieroglyphics'

        Hungarian Notation makes sense. (So does Polish Notation (pre and post), but that's another story ... ). Redmoglyphics? Not so much.

    2. Mark 85

      Re: Dear Mr Simonyi

      and sort out the Windows 10 debacle too.

      I believe that one is beyond anyone's ability. There's clusterfucks and then there's Win10 in a class by itself.

    3. kain preacher

      Re: Dear Mr Simonyi

      that's another division.

      1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

        Re: Dear Mr Simonyi

        Title for an irregular feature in the Register?

        Or commentards to post under that heading when the topic warrants it

      2. jake Silver badge

        Re: Dear Mr Simonyi

        For division, see "another story", above.

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Dear Mr Simonyi

      A traditional menu would be inane with all the current options/features available in Word, for example. I preferred it at the time but now it would be like trying to navigate the index of Encyclopedia Britannica.

    5. Pompous Git Silver badge

      Re: Dear Mr Simonyi

      "please can you get rid of that damn ribbon thing and put a proper menu back"
      Addin Tools Classic Menu.

  10. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Joke

    "I am excited, stoked, amped, and elated to join forces again with Microsoft,"

    Holy s**t. I haven't seen someone that excited since Mother popped 3 E's

  11. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Coat

    For some reason whenever I hear the phrase "Hungarian notation" I think of

    this

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