[odf-discuss] Spreadsheet formulas

[Jerry Askew]

Thanks Daniel,

My understanding of MS Office's formulas is that the language is
different for Excel and Word.  Does the OOXML spec address each of these
separately?  I'm thinking of using this to exemplify the "dump whatever
it does into a PDF" concept and then argue the benefits of having a well
thought out extensible standard vs. a more complete, yet encumbered
standard.

Thank you
-Jerry



-----Original Message-----
From: odf-discuss-bounces at opendocumentfellowship.org
[mailto:odf-discuss-bounces at opendocumentfellowship.org] On Behalf Of
Daniel Carrera
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2007 1:31 PM
To: ODF Discussion List
Subject: Re: [odf-discuss] Spreadsheet formulas

Before ODF *no* file format ever included a spec for spreadsheet
formulas. So let's start by putting it in perspective. David Wheeler was
the first person to note that this is a deficiency (shared by *very*
format to that date) and started a project to add a full formula
specification to ODF.

David A. Wheeler is a Fellowship member, and is now the chair of the
OASIS Formula Sub Committee, and they are writing the formula
specification for ODF.

After David identified the need for a specification, MS took the
opportunity to make a lot of noise about it. Of course, they didn't have
to do very much to define a formula spec because they just dumped
whatever Excel does into a PDF and called it a spec. They didn't even
bother to actually describe what some functions do.

Work on the OpenFormula spec continues, and will be included in the next
version of ODF.

If you have additional questions, please ask.

Daniel.


On Wed, 2007-01-24 at 13:24 -0800, Jerry Askew wrote:
> We've managed to stimulate discussion on another list over ODF vs.
> OOXML.  Someone has cited a comment at 
>
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2005/10/01/Open-Office-Conference
where it indicates that ODF does not include spreadsheet formulas.
>  
> From the article:  "I learned, to my dismay, that the ODF 
> specification is silent on spreadsheet formulas, they're just 
> strings."
>  
> I looked through the Fellowship site but couldn't find any references 
> to this.  Can someone point me to an article that will enlighten me.
> I'd like to respond intelligently to the comment that ODF does not 
> address spreadsheet formulas.
>  
> Thank you
> -Jerry
>  
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--
May you live in interesting times.
May people in high places take notice of you.
May all your wishes come true.
  -- Chinese curse.

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