Re: [office-formula] CONVERT - proposals and a new draft

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

> >  - Temperature measure "Reau" is extremely rare; it was supported by
> >  OpenOffice.org 2.1, but there does not appear to be a need for all
> >  applications to support it for interoperability. Let's drop it.
> 
> It's for Réaumur, a historical temperature scale used in Europe before
> Celsius was introduced, see
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9aumur_scale
> We could as well keep it, not?

Hmm, it DOES have a clear definition!  I wasn't familiar with this one, but obviously it's out there; it appears to be more common in Germany and France.  Okay, it has utility and a clear definition, so let's keep it.  I'll include a definition for those who've never heard of it.

> >  - Drop mass measure pweight - if this is supposed to be the
> >  pennyweight, it's got the wrong abbreviation (pennyweight is dwt),
> >  and OOo 2.1 gets it wrong anyway. CONVERT_ADD(1;"pweight";"grain")
> >  produces 21.88 but pennyweight should produce 24.  If it's not
> >  pennyweight, I don't know what it is.
> 
> It's supposed to be pennyweight, at least from the comment in the
> sources.. btw, 'dwt' would also be a deadweight ton, quite different
> from a pennyweight. Yes, let's drop it.

Dropped.  Great!

> >  - Drop mass measures hweight, shweight.  Don't know what they are,
> >  and I doubt they're important.
> 
> Commented as Hundredweight and Shorthundredweight in the sources.
> Yet another U.S. invention. Used in commerce, it seems, and corresponds
> with 'ozm' and similar. Should use an abbreviation instead, see
> http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/AvoirdupoisSystemofUnits.html

Looks like cwt and lcwt are their official abbreviations.

Should we include this?  Just the official symbols, or the older OOo symbols too?

> Not mentioned in the online-help is 'brton', Gross Registered Ton, but
> that should be 'GRT' then instead.

Aka a "long ton".  "lton" seems to be used too.  Okay, now I know what it is... do we want to include it in the spec?

> >  - Drop volume measures Schooner, Middy.
> >  [...]
> 
> Seconded. Original developer was fond of Australian liquids it seems ;-)
> 
> >  - Drop volume measure “Glass”.  OpenOffice.org computes
> >  1 Glass as 0.2 liters, i.e., =CONVERT_ADD(1;"Glass";"l") is 0.2.  Er,
> >  fine, but is this really an important measure? I doubt it.  Let's
> >  drop it, I doubt this is needed for interoperability.
> 
> I agree.
> 
> 
> > Other unit names added:
> 
> > “L” - liter, because this is the standard NIST-recommended
> > abbreviation for liter in U.S.  The lowercase “l”, while
> > used, is easily confused with the digit “1”.
> 
> As long as we keep 'l' as well..

Yes, completely agree.

> > “tspm” - modern/metric teaspoon, because the definition of
> > “teaspoon” has changed
> 
> Is there really a metric _definition_ for teaspoon?

Okay, let's just call it "modern".  I need an adjective to distinguish it from the traditional meaning of this measurement.

> > “pc” - official abbreviation of parsec (CONVERT only
> > supports abbreviated prefixes, so to use the correct units it must
> > support abbreviated unit names as well)
> 
> Seconded.
> 
> > “ly” - light-year, a very common astronomical length
> > measurement (it did not make sense to have parsec but not light-year).
> > There are varying lengths of the year for light-year; the one
> > recommended by the IAU is used (365.25 days)
> 
> Correspoding with 'parsec' OOo currently has 'lightyear', not in the
> online-help though.

Okay.

> > “m/hr” and “m/sec” were added
> > (“m/h” and “m/s” were already in
> > OpenOffice.org 2.1), to be consistent with the “hr” and
> > “sec” abbreviations.
> 
> Btw, a 'd' for day would fit into the time quantities.

True, I wasn't sure we wanted to add that.  I fear adding much more.

> > I didn't add a "modern/metric tablespoon"; in most countries it's
> > 15mL, but in Australia it's officially 20mL.  Ugh.
> 
> In Australia everything is bigger and more dangerous ;-)

:-)  :-)


--- David A. Wheeler