Tables: default-cell-style-name interpretation

[Stefan Nikolaus <stefan.nikolaus@kdemail.net>]

Hello Technical Committee members,

there was already a discussion on the opendocument-users mailing list about 
the default-cell-style-name (@dcsn) attribute of column and row styles ("How 
to interpret the default-cell-style-name attribute in spreadsheets"). So, I 
will not repeat all this here. Just a short summary:

OO.o Calc assigns @dcsn only to the cells in the used are.
KSpread assigns it to the whole column/row.

(As I said: short! ;-)


What I want is to inform you about _my_ observations and _my_ conclusion of 
the discussion. Maybe we'll get then to a clarification...

1. There's nothing explicitly mentioned in the current spec, which says that 
the @dcsn should be used for the used area only.

2. The only interpretation, that allows the @dcsn to be applied to the used 
area, results in different @dcsn interpretations for spreadsheet and 
non-spreadsheet apps.

3. Applying the @dcsn to the used area only would mean an exception as all 
other column/row attributes apply to the whole column/row.

4. The usage of the brevity argument seems higher as the usage of 
whole "row/col styles"


Conclusion:
The @dcsn should be applied to the whole column/row.


And here are my proposals to clarify the spec:

1. Split the third paragraph of 8.1 "Basic Table Model", so it becomes more 
obvious, that the rendering part belongs to both kind of apps. It would also 
increase the readability.

2. Clarify, that the spreadsheet loading part refers to the dimension of the 
spreadsheet app, not the dimension of the saved doc. It's already given 
by 'just like in an empty sheet', but obviously it's not definite enough.

3. The spec should be extended to make use of the brevity approach. E.g. by 
introducing two cell attributes "style-columns-repeated" 
and "style-rows-repeated". A cell, lying in the repeated range, use this 
style, except the cell sets its own. The repeated range belongs to the used 
area. This would be even more flexible and brevity comes to its optimum, 
because you can define style repetitions starting at an arbitrary cell 
instead of being fixed to columns or rows.


That's it already. A clarification of the @dcsn interpretation is highly 
welcomed. At least by me. ;-)

Regards,
Stefan

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