Re: [office-formula] Infix Operator "^" - here's what applications do

[Eike Rathke <erack@sun.com>]

Hi David,

On Saturday, 2007-02-24 14:46:23 -0500, David A. Wheeler wrote:

> Excel 2003: higher, left
> OOo 2.1: higher, left
> wikiCalc version 0.97 of 2006-11-14: higher, left
> Lotus 1-2-3, v9.8.0208.1200: lower, left
> Quattro Pro 12 (native mode): lower, left
> (PalmOS) DocumentToGo SheetToGo: lower, left
> Gnumeric 1.6.3: higher, right
> KDE KSpread 1.6.1: higher, right [BUT KSpread has switched to left-to-right since then]
> 
> I think we NEED to define these two issues, instead of leaving them undefined/requiring parens in all cases, in the exchange format.  Obviously, user interfaces can do something different.
> 
> The precedence of "-" is obviously debated, but I think we should choose "higher".

Given that list above: definitely yes.

> left-to-rightness is less contested if you weight these equally; in any case, I think we should choose "left".  Both are our current values, so in other words, I'm arguing for the status quo.  I believe we should leave things as they are (higher and left).

Seconded.

I'll add to the portable constraints though that because some
applications do it differently parentheses should be added.
Do we want to list the applications' behavior?

  Eike

-- 
Automatic string conversions considered dangerous. They are the GOTO statements
of spreadsheets.  --Robert Weir on the OpenDocument formula subcommittee's list.