i know you can unzip(1) an essay.pages
i heard a rumor this helps some microsft word import a file as if from older imac - though being a blog i doubt it does.
i had no problem "seeing the text" in Document.iwa. However it is not a human readable file. Some (text) is obviously not ascii text and so can't be represented with an ascii viewer (i'm surprised any are - but most text is viewable). However - the document is binary encoded not human readable text. The codes are likely numbers (or perhaps represent functions?).
#FIG 3.2
Landscape
Center
Inches
Letter
100.00
Single
-2
1200 2
2 2 0 1 0 7 50 0 -1 0.000 0 0 -1 0 0 5
675 1500 3825 1500 3825 2775 675 2775 675 1500
4 0 0 50 0 0 12 0.0000 4 165 1005 1500 2025 Hello, World!\001
4 0 0 50 0 0 12 0.0000 4 135 930 1500 2250 Hello There!\001
My point? If it were in xml (like microsoft .xml) it would still be beyond most people (time and money) to "get their text out". Only saving as plain text will help "get the text".
The point the above xfig(1) save makes is this: even if it were human readable and free for all open software format, that doesn't help you read the document. You seem to be implying that a pile of .xml that only ms software can make from jibberish is better than an .iwa that only apple can make from jibberish. I don't see unzippig a ,docx and having "nothing to go on unless using microsoft" any better. Infact since I'm an Apple user all of that is pointless.
The original idead of "post script" (now called PDF) was to have a human readable / editable document and have metadata (fonts, layout changes, et al) at the end of the document in an area humans do not edit without a (graphical layout editor).
I will say, if you want a human readable picture perfect document that can be hand edited, but also preserve text: use Postscript language. It would be like editing in HTML with a text editor: but have more perfect results at print and cross-OS viewing time. I'm unsure if Adobe editors sill save in such a editable format (if asked to as an option). They may still support may not. I'm sure by default save format is PDF which is compressed. Adobe has filters that rip text out of .pdf, i'm unsure if Apple has such a thing for .pages, I doubt it, Pages is not meant to replace Adobe.
