Re: [office-comment] OpenFormula: Excel FLOOR Function

[Sheldon Britton <sab_orion@verizon.net>]

Hi Leonard,

Re:
"Actually, this concept contains a hidden flaw.

People actually want to solve their problem. You might give them special 
functions to solve a problem in a dozen of complex intermediary steps. 
This puts usually the burden on the user.

Or you may devise the spreadsheet in such a way, that the problem is 
solved elegantly and without much effort by the user. This latter 
approach is better, but necessitates a lot of rethinking of existing 
spreadsheets and spreadsheet functions.

Just couldn't resist to post this comment. ;-)

I am planning to challenge a lot of the spreadsheet paradigms, as time 
will permit...."

As one who has been previously intimately involved in the /*"manual 
methods"*/ of completing certain processes within the "development 
banking" industry I wish to submit that even before one gets to the 
stage of actually attempting to solve a given problem with the 
"*/computerized/* /*spreadsheet functions**"*/ that are currently being 
provided; (and with those that will follow in the future), there are 
also those step-by-step /*_procedures _*/that have to be adhered to in 
order to achieve the desired results. This now brings us to the 
questions with regard to the integration of /*"Databases", Tables"*/... 
into those Spreadsheets (for example; the Microsoft-Eolas case).

_Question:_
So, in addition to the obvious spreadsheet issues currently being 
discussed... when and how will these "integration" or "interoperability" 
issues now being pointed towards be addressed if not now?

Kindest regards,

Sheldon a. Britton  

Leonard Mada wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
>
> David A. Wheeler wrote:
>> Dennis E. Hamilton:
>>  
>>> FLOOR(x) = -CEILING(-x)
>>>     
>>
>> True. What I _meant_ was that there was no built-in operation
>> to do the mathematical FLOOR operation. After all,
>>
>> TAN(x) = SIN(x)/COS(x)
>>
>> But people would rightly object if we only had SIN and COS.
>>
>> We should try to make it _easy_ for users to express
>> common cases, using the functions they prefer to use.
>>   
>
> Actually, this concept contains a hidden flaw.
>
> People actually want to solve their problem. You might give them 
> special functions to solve a problem in a dozen of complex 
> intermediary steps. This puts usually the burden on the user.
>
> Or you may devise the spreadsheet in such a way, that the problem is 
> solved elegantly and without much effort by the user. This latter 
> approach is better, but necessitates a lot of rethinking of existing 
> spreadsheets and spreadsheet functions.
>
> Just couldn't resist to post this comment. ;-)
>
> I am planning to challenge a lot of the spreadsheet paradigms, as time 
> will permit.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Leonard
>
>> --- David A. Wheeler
>>
>>   
>
>