Re: [office-comment] Statistical SUMMARY() function

["David A. Wheeler" <dwheeler@dwheeler.com>]

Rob Weir:
> > HI Leonard,
> > 
> > Thanks for the proposal.
> > 
> > Another way of accomplish this might be something in the middle.  So, 
> > imagine a application MENU choice that instead of calculating the values 
> > and pasting them in as static values -- an approach with the liabilities 
> > you mention -- have the Menu option paste in the underlying formulas. So 
> > a menu option that pastes in a range/block of formulas.  This approach 
> > might be applicable in other places as well: a formula block template, 
> > where you have a group of related functions that you want to paste in at 
> > once, but have a single dialog box for filling out the common parameters. 
> > This would make it more of an application UI feature than a format 
> > question.

I like this idea very much. It eliminates the "doesn't recalculate"
problems mentioned earlier, without requiring a new complicated
spec for interoperability.  It's also easy to expand; one trouble with a
"summary" is that everyone has a different idea of what the important
stats are.  This way, you can add/remove whatever you'd like.

I suggest that we mention this as a "note" in the spec.  Although such a note
wouldn't require anything, it would help other reviewers understand how
this kind functionality is supported without a special, unique mechanism
to do it.

--- David A. Wheeler