# Acknowledgements

Many thanks to to John Machin for originally writing `xlrd` and tirelessly supporting it for many years before retiring.

- This package started life as a translation from C into Python of parts of a utility called “xlreader” developed by David Giffin. “This product includes software developed by David Giffin <david@giffin.org>.”

- OpenOffice.org has truly excellent documentation of the Microsoft Excel file formats and Compound Document file format, authored by Daniel Rentz. See http://sc.openoffice.org

- U+5F20 U+654F: over a decade of inspiration, support, and interesting decoding opportunities.

- Ksenia Marasanova: sample Macintosh and non-Latin1 files, alpha testing

- Backporting to Python 2.1 was partially funded by Journyx - provider of timesheet and project accounting solutions (http://journyx.com/).

- Provision of formatting information in version 0.6.1 was funded by Simplistix Ltd.

Development of this package would not have been possible without the document OpenOffice.org’s Documentation of the Microsoft Excel File Format” (“OOo docs” for short). The latest version is available from OpenOffice.org in PDF format and ODT format. Small portions of the OOo docs are reproduced in this document. A study of the OOo docs is recommended for those who wish a deeper understanding of the Excel file layout than the xlrd docs can provide.

Backporting to Python 2.1 was partially funded by Journyx - provider of timesheet and project accounting solutions.