Bobby: Skip is one of the authors of the csv module, and has been maintaining it since it was added to the standard library.  He knows whereof he speaks: there is no standard for csv (as noted in the article you link), and all csv parsers that want to be interoperable refer back to Microsoft's implementation when dealing with any quirks.  That implementation currently is Excel.

That said, your are right that others have adopted the format, and there is an argument to be made that we don't have to *limit* ourselves to what Microsoft supports.  Although we probably don't want to be emitting stuff that they don't without being explicit about it.