[Formula SC] Treating errors as strings?

[Brad Hards <bradh@frogmouth.net>]

I am confused by what section 4.5 of the OpenFormula specification is trying 
to say.

If the result of a calculation results in an error, then the result of 
calculations on that result either could propagate the error, or treat the 
error as a string. 
For example LEN(1/0) could be Error (or #VALUE!, however the error is 
presented), or it could be a integer (5 or 7, depending on the length of the 
string). 

Perhaps Section 4.5 should say that "calculations taking inputs that are Error 
values shall result in Error, except where a specific exception to this rule 
is defined in the formula or operator part of this specification".

This would avoid nasty cases where calculations hide underlying errors, as 
implied by Section 10.1.

Also, Section 4.5 of version 20061208 has a spello (propogate should be 
propagate) and an incomplete sentence: In OpenDocument, if an error value is 
the result of a cell computation any must be stored that way, it is treated 
as a string. 

Brad

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