Re: [office-formula] Semantics

[Daniel Carrera <daniel.carrera@zmsl.com>]

Richard Kernick wrote:
> 2. What to do with string data?
> 
> It must be stored 'as is' in the file format, but how to convert it to 
> other types. This has no simple solution and this is where locale can 
> come in. Should we consider making the file format locale aware? So 
> VALUE("3,333.33") in the UI is saved as VALUE("3,333.33", locale).

Seems sensible. A syntactic alternative is to store the locale for the 
entire document in meta.xml. Currently OpenDocument stores <dc:language> 
in meta.xml, so putting locale in the same place is consistent. Dublin 
Core doesn't seem to have a tag for locale, but we could make up a new 
tag. But perhaps that belongs in the metadata SC?

Maybe we should bring this up on the main TC list, since it's an issue 
that involves two sub-committees (metadata and formula).

> Is this perhaps beyond the scope of the specification? The specification 
> is about data exchange, by making the locale information part of the 
> specification we enable this, otherwise we become immersed in a quagmire 
> almost endless possibilities.

Loale information is metadata. I think it should be included in the 
format, but not in the spreadsheet formulas themselves.

> My fear is that by adding things like locale we move the specification 
> too far away from current implementations and risk no one using it.

True. Another reason to have locale in meta.xml. The drawback of putting 
locale in meta.xml is that you couldn't have some functions in one 
locale and some functions in another. Do we want to allow for that? 
Personally I don't because I think it might make the format too complicated.

I think we should get some input from the metadata guys.

Cheers,
Daniel.
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