[OASIS Issue Tracker] Commented: (OFFICE-3768) 4.7 Empty Cell terminology

[OASIS Issues Tracker <workgroup_mailer@lists.oasis-open.org>]

    [ http://tools.oasis-open.org/issues/browse/OFFICE-3768?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels:comment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=31426#action_31426 ] 

Dennis Hamilton commented on OFFICE-3768:
-----------------------------------------

I am thinking that the definition of empty cell is not a matter for OpenFormula.  It requires knowing when a cell is emptry, but there is no assumed understanding of how a cell is determined to be empty or even how a cell is determined to be other than empty how it's type is known, and how it's value is represented.

It strikes me that predicates on a cell, including whether the cell is even defined for a given cell reference, should be part of the  Host-Defined Behaviors in section 3.4.  It is probably a refinement on whatever the HOST-REFERENCE-RESOLVER provides in a binding to a particular point of reliance on OpenFormula in an implementation.

> 4.7 Empty Cell terminology
> --------------------------
>
>                 Key: OFFICE-3768
>                 URL: http://tools.oasis-open.org/issues/browse/OFFICE-3768
>             Project: OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) TC
>          Issue Type: Improvement
>          Components: OpenFormula
>    Affects Versions: ODF 1.2
>            Reporter: Andre Rebentisch
>
> The terminology "Empty Cell" in the specification creates semantic confusion because we also find the empty string of type Text. The term makes parts of the specification ambigious and unintuitive to read, for instance (cmp. OFFICE-3764) in 4.11.8 "For =, if the value is empty it matches empty cells."
> The definition in 4.7 reads "Empty Cell - An empty cell is neither zero nor the empty string, and an empty cell can be distinguished from cells containing values (including zero and the empty string). An empty cell is not the same as an Error, in particular, it is distinguishable from the Error #N/A (not available)."

-- 
This message is automatically generated by JIRA.
-
If you think it was sent incorrectly contact one of the administrators: http://tools.oasis-open.org/issues/secure/Administrators.jspa
-
For more information on JIRA, see: http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira