Proposal: Identifying nonstandard functions

["David A. Wheeler" <dwheeler@dwheeler.com>]

Different applications have different functions, and we want
applications to be free to create new functions. Yet the semantics
they create may be incompatible with each other (for example,
Lotus' 1-2-3 DAYS is incompatible with OOo's DAYS function).

We need a way to identify functions created by a given application,
one that won't interfere with others.  This is one of the
requirements in our charter.

I propose a very simple approach: Already, some applications are
using "." as a name space separator for function names
(see SQL.stuff, ERROR.stuff, etc.).  So, let's simply assign
name prefixes for each application we know of, and a way
to get your own name prefix formally assigned.

That way, you can have "GNUMERIC.XOR(...)" as a function.
A given application probably would not show the prefix for
itself (so for GNUMERIC, this would probably just show as XOR).
Proposed predefined prefixes: EXCEL, LOTUS, GNUMERIC,
OOO, KSPREAD, WIKICALC, QUATTRO.  They could nest, so
EXCEL.SQL.QUERY() could be Excel's SQL.QUERY() function.

I don't think we need to use XML namespaces for this.
The number of applications and independent libraries is
relatively small, and we could probably have OASIS act as
the registrar for names.

Thoughts?

--- David A. Wheeler