Re: [office] Excel 2007 != Ecma spec YEARFRAC. Not even slightly. Whatshould we do?

[robert_weir@us.ibm.com]

From a storage perspective,  is
there any backwards compatibility problem caused by moving from our current
integer bases to strings, where five of the strings are "0",
"1", "2", "3" and "4" ?

If we did that we could add others like
"NYSE_X25", "ISDA_Rule25" or whatever.

-Rob


"David A. Wheeler" <dwheeler@dwheeler.com>
wrote on 04/18/2008 02:56:31 PM:

> In general, the formula specification tries to follow EXISTING
> conventions wherever reasonable.  _All_ spreadsheet implementations
> use integer "basis" values for all their functions that
have
> such a parameter.  I agree that using a string has its merits,
> but using an integer is reasonable enough.
> In fact, integers make it easy to create "ranges", and would
> actually _ease_ transitions if there are differing interpretations
> of basis values.
> 
> I think we should try to AVOID spec'ing something incompatible
> with all existing implementations unless we have a pressing
> need to do so, and I don't think this is compelling.  That said...
> 
> 
> > On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 7:00 AM, David A. Wheeler 
> <dwheeler@dwheeler.com> wrote:
> > >  The problem is that basis values need not be a constant
in the 
> cell; it might be
> > >  from another cell and/or a calculation (directly or
indirectly), e.g.:
> > >  YEARFRAC([.A5];[.B5];[.C5]+1)
>  
> Warren Turkal:
> > This seems like an unrealistic use case. In all sincerity, why
would
> > someone do that? Is it common? I just don't see folks selecting
the
> > basis by saying I want whatever the basis is identified by taking
the
> > identifier of some basis (e.g. actual/actual) and adding 1 to
it.
> 
> You're right, that was a silly example.
> 
> But a more realistic one is:
> 
>  YEARFRAC([.A5];[.B5]; IF(CONVENTION="US"; 0; 4))
> 
> Now the filter has to start digging through the expression tree,
> or end up with a complicated resulting expression.  Ugh.
> 
> > Having said that. If people do it, import filters can just map
it to
> > whatever fixed string it's value corresponds to on import...
> 
> Yes, import filters can fix it... but let's try to make it easy on
> the filters!
> Simple implementation is very important for getting a spec implemented.
> 
> Switching from an integer to a string representation does NOT
> really ease the "different basis interpretation" problem
at all.
> It just means that EVERYONE has to convert, instead of only
> SOME people having to convert.  That makes things worse, not
better.
> Integers also tend to be more efficient, and make it easy to
> do conversions of whole groups (e.g., we could make the
> Excel 2007 and OOXML conventions differ by 128, and then
> adding/subtracting 128).
> 
> Since everyone uses integers NOW for basis values, let's try to stick
> with that if it's practical to do so.  And I think it is.
> 
> --- David A. Wheeler
> 
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