Java

Open Source Contribution in the AI Era: Lessons from the HwpLibSharp Porting Project I’ve been a Microsoft MVP for 17 years now. One of the most frequently asked questions I’ve received in the .NET community is “How do I work with HWP files in C#?” The official library from Hancom was built on Windows and COM, leaving virtually no solution for cross-platform .NET environments. Then I discovered hwplib by @neolord0—a pure Java open source library that parses the HWP file format. The thought immediately struck me: “Porting this to .NET would be a real contribution to the community.” But it wasn’t going to be easy. The codebase was massive, and it was still being actively updated. ...

It Started with Simple Curiosity “I wish I could handle HWP files directly in .NET…” I’m probably not the only .NET developer who has had this thought. HWP files are still widely used in Korea, especially in government agencies, but the .NET ecosystem lacked a proper open-source library to handle them. Previously, the only way to work with HWP files in .NET was to use the HWP ActiveX control’s COM type library that comes with Hangul (the word processor), limited to Windows. Unfortunately, even this support has been discontinued, leaving us with no options. ...