Re: CD01 -- 8.2.1 Referencing Table Cells

[marbux <marbux@gmail.com>]

I thank Alex for bringing the revised committee draft 02 to my attention.

On a closely related matter, it appears that a TC co-chair also
believes that it is a conformity requirement in ODF 1.1 that formula
addresses start with a "“[“ and end with a “]”.
<http://www.robweir.com/blog/2009/05/follow-up-on-excel-2007-sp2s-odf.html>
(quoting section 8.3.1; however the correction section number for the
quoted portion is 8.1.3). The corresponding section in CD 02 is
17.645.

Neither ODF 1.1 nor CD 02 establish any requirements at all in regard
to formula addresses. The relevant text is merely informative rather
than normative. If the TC desires to create conformity requirements in
regard to brackets and formula addresses (which would be a Very Good
Thing), they must be worded in the imperative using "shall" or "shall
not" as required by the authorities I cited earlier in this thread.

The closest either document comes to a conformance requirement in the
cited sections is the statement that "[e]very formula *should* begin
with a namespace prefix specifying the syntax and semantics used
within the formula." However, "should" is defined by by ISO/IEC,
ISO/IEC Directives Part 2 Annex H as only a recommendation.

Conformity may validly be claimed despite a recommendation being
ignored. Conforming product characteristics in the international
standards context are specified by mandatory requirements, not by
recommendations and not by implementer interoperability plug-fests.
Cf., the article linked above.

Best regards,

Paul E. Merrell, J.D. ("Marbux")

-- 
Universal Interoperability Council
<http:www.universal-interop-council.org>