Re: [office-formula] HYPERLINK definition (was: Looking for HYPERLINKvolunteers)

[robert_weir@us.ibm.com]

How does OpenOffice and other applications
handle this today?

For example, I can just enter www.ibm.com
into a cell and it is treated as a hyperlink.  I don't need to use
any special function to do this.

But if the same text comes from a formula,
then it is not treated as a hyperlink.  For example:   =CONCATENATE("www.";"ibm.";"com")

Ideally, I'd want clickable links to occur
whenever the text in a cell matches a URL pattern, whether the text was
entered as a literal text, or whether it was calculated.  Maybe it
is too expensive to do it that way?

In any case, if we want to define Hyperlin()k
as a also having navigation behavior, then we might want to add an optional
third parameter, to specify the target, as in _self, _new, _parent, etc.
 The default for heavy weight editors would be _new, but I think that
web-based spreadsheets, whether Google or Wikicalc may want the ability
to specify the target of the URL.

Regards,

-Rob
___________________________

Rob Weir
Software Architect
Workplace, Portal and Collaboration Software
IBM Software Group

email: robert_weir@us.ibm.com
phone: 1-978-399-7122
blog: http://www.robweir.com/blog/

Eike Rathke <erack@sun.com> wrote on 03/07/2007
09:29:27 AM:

> Hi Robert,
> 
> On Monday, 2007-03-05 14:03:41 -0500, Robert Weir wrote:
> 
> > Maybe just define it without any side-effects.  So, HYPERLINK()
takes a 
> > string parameter and returns that same parameter.  If an
optional second 
> > parameter "friendly name" is provided, it returns that
string instead. 
> > Then mark the entire function as deprecated. 
> 
> I don't think that's sufficient. The function actually may be useful,
> though due to its weird behavior it's broken by design. However, since
> it was introduced by Excel people rely on the brokenness. We should
> fully specify it.
> 
> > A function that changes for formatting of the current cell contents
is 
> > just weird.
> 
> It's not just about formatting, it is the clickable hyperlink
> functionality it is used for.
> 
> > I don't think we want to require this of any implementation.
> > But if we simply define it as above it will be compatible with
Excel and 
> > anyone is free to add additional behaviors if they want.
> 
> Which would be undefined then. IMHO not a good idea.
> 
>   Eike
> 
> -- 
> Automatic string conversions considered dangerous. They are the GOTOstatements
> of spreadsheets.  --Robert Weir on the OpenDocument formula 
> subcommittee's list.