Re: [office-collab] change tracking proposals

[robert_weir@us.ibm.com]

Hi Andreas,

I don't think that there is any intent to ignore spreadsheets.  But it is 
possible that some think that spreadsheets are "just tables" and that if 
we handle tables in text documents, then tables in spreadsheets would 
present no additional difficulties.

I can see a few reasons why that is an insufficient view:

1) Tables in spreadsheets have formulas, whereas tables in text documents 
generally don't (although ODF does allow them)

2) Tables in spreadsheets have calculated values, some of which can change 
even if the underlying formulas or user-entered data does not change. 
These are the "volatile" calculations involving the current date or time, 
or calls to RAND().

3) There is an efficiency question that arises in spreadsheets that is not 
commonly seen in text documents.  It is rare to see a table in a text 
document that exceeds 1 or 2 pages in length.  But spreadsheets today 
allow one million rows.

Are there any other unique aspects of spreadsheets, from the change 
tracking perspective, that we should be aware of?

There is also the fact that today, change tracking is implemented and used 
far more often in word processors than in spreadsheets, but this does not 
say that things might change in the future.  So I'd encourage us to 
consider spreadsheet, as well as presentation use cases in our thinking.

Regards,

-Rob

"Andreas J. Guelzow" <andreas.guelzow@concordia.ab.ca> wrote on 04/22/2011 
11:05:13 AM:

> 
> I am starting to question my participation in this SC. 
> 
> I realize that when ODF 1.0 and 1.1 were approved the interoperablity
> needs for spreadsheets were ignored and only with the OpenFormula
> specification in ODF 1.2 was ODF made useful for spreadsheets. 
> 
> Based on comments made during the three calls, it appears to me that the
> same is now going to happen for change tracking, ie this discussion is
> solely focused on text documents an the underspecified change tracking
> for spreadsheets just carried on.
> 
> Is it the majority opinion in this TC that the change tracking proposals
> to be discussed are text-document only specific (and so change tracking
> for spreadsheets are considered completely separate from change tracking
> for text documents)?
> Thank you