I tried an interesting experiment recently… What happens if you take a file in a proprietary format that runs only on a single OS platform, with no published spec, and you hand the plaintext export of that same file to a sophisticated coding agent? Maybe you ask it to generate not only the file spec but also the read/write library in the target programming language of your choice. And then walk away… How do you suppose that ends?
Suh-PRISE! You get a rough draft of the spec that generalizes to your sample files, and you get the first iteration of a parser library. Throw some more files at it, and it just keeps refining the spec. Admittedly, this will always be a cat-and-mouse game where the vendor could keep trying to add more defensive encoding, or you run across files with optional properties not encountered before, but short of flat-out encrypting the data with no available decryption key, a coding agent can continually chew on this problem ad infinitum.
Where does this leave vendors? They can choose to abandon their proprietary protocols and file formats in favor of open standards, publish those specs, or waste resources fighting a losing battle. The age of creating a walled garden via file types and protocols is quickly coming to an end. And I’m lovin’ every bit of it.
