Re: [office-formula] Our next adventure: Types and conversions

["Tomas Mecir" <mecirt@gmail.com>]

On 7/2/06, David A. Wheeler <dwheeler@dwheeler.com> wrote:
> For NOW, we won't require any particular text/number conversion
> algorithm, and we'll be clear that we won't.  That doesn't mean
> the final spec will allow all options; anyone can still
> raise the issue here in this forum, let's continue discussion.
> If we CAN find a consensus that is more specific, GREAT!!!
> But if not, users can still create spreadsheets that exchange
> easily, they just need to not mix text/numbers. And remember, this
> is only round one -- many specs add specificity as time goes
> on (and as certain areas that were once controversial gain clarity).

Agreed. Let's keep this open and move on.

Oh, and for the problem at hand,  just one more comment: the farther
we venture from "how everyone does it", the harder will it become for
other spreadsheets to make use of this format - people will be VERY
reluctant to change a lot of logic and to break backwards
compatibility with previous versions of their products, just for the
sake of supporting a different -file format-. Hence, if we do require
something, you can very much expect implementations that say, I don't
care, I support the format, and that's it, no semantics changes for
me.

/ Tomas